Already Gone
by meaghyn
Summary: If some thing Stacie McMahon always seemed to be in Mark Calaway's life was always gone. After "mere coincidences" and a possible marriage that could ruin the both of them, Mark will either loose her for good or fight for everything his heart hinges on.
1. We Were Never Meant for Do or Die

**Disclaimer: Don't own a damn thing but the story in my head. -sigh-**

**I know it's been a while, writer's block is a pain.**

**What's with not being able to choose "The Undertaker" in the character listing listed online? That's pretty darn lame.**

_Remember all the things we wanted  
Now all our memories, they're haunted  
We were always meant to say goodbye  
Even with our fists held high  
It never would've worked out right  
We were never meant for do or die.._

_Present Day_

Stacie awoke in a cold sweat, it didn't happen often but when it did, the dreams shook her to the core. She closed her eyes and placed the palm of her hand on her forehead and took a deep breath before collapsing back down into her bed with a huff. She knew why she was having these dreams, tomorrow was appropriately described as "D Day," tomorrow was the day she moved from behind the scenes to in front of the camera. For the most part she had been quiet content being behind the scenes, she didn't have to deal with the drama, she didn't have to deal with the road frenzy. Her life was collected, organized and simple. Tomorrow it would turn to "where the hell are my things and why is my life so chaotic?" Tomorrow also marked the first time in 10 years that she'd see her ex. Not just any ex, her first love. For the better part of these past 10 years Stacie had done an amazing job for herself. She had worked up into the Marketing area of the WWE, and not just because she was Vince's daughter. She had earned it. She helped WWE go public, helped with the transition from WWF to WWE, and tried to catapult them into a new generation of wrestling. In the mean time it left her to work with Make A Wish, obtain her doctorate and left her to re-furbish a house from the 1880's she had managed to find in Vermont. Life after Mark Calaway had left her just fine.

And then these damned dreamed seemed to pop up. Things between them didn't necessarily end bitter, but any end of any relationship is hard. He was tired of being ragged on by dating Vince's daughter, she was tired of feeling like she couldn't be herself around him in public. They were both private people, but Mark had so much invested in his character as The Undertaker… things just would have never worked out. After "the big fight" she packed her things and left… and never looked back. A few months later Mark married, though divorced now, he seemed happy. And that was enough for her. They were both happy… but "what if" questions still plagued her mind from time to time.

Stacie's hazel eyes glanced to the clock and saw she only had a few more minutes left until the alarm kicked in, so she switched it off and crawled out of bed, the wooden floors squeeking beneath her weight as she made her way out of the bed room and down the stairs to the kitchen for her cup of coffee. She had packing she had to get done, bills to pay and a trip to her parents to leave from Connecticut to Idaho to make her first big appearance on WWE Raw. She cursed the day.

"Sweet heart, you okay?" Michelle looked over at Mark, her big blue eyes full of concern. Mark glanced up from reading the transcripts for the next few weeks of Raw and Smackdown, his face was etched with concern as he read and re-read the name "Stacie McMahon" on several of the sheets. It had taken him off guard, no one had bothered to tell him she was entering the picture, but then again most people didn't know of their past. Her parents, siblings, Paul, J.R., and Shawn and Glenn – but that was it, well, who was still around. The fact of the matter was, he never had forgotten her and had tried his damndest to close that wound and when he discovered he couldn't he just ignored this. Well now the wound was gaping and his heart skipped a few beats when he realized she would be on the road… tomorrow.

___________________________________

"Yeah, I'm fine babe. Just getting a head ache." Mark lied through his teeth at Michelle, but there was no need in her knowing any of this.

"You want some Tylenol?" she asked digging through her pocket book trying to find the bottle.

"Nah, I just need some coffee, I think it's from lack of caffeine." Michelle smiled and got up to go get him some. Did he love her? For the most part. They had a great relationship, she understood the business, she was there. They had a rock solid relationship, he had no reason to complain or any reason to feel threatened about Stacie being here. For God's sake, Stacie and him ended 10 years ago, she had moved on and so had he. Several times, he recalled as he remembered a failed marriage, a period of womanizing and then finally settling down as best he could with Michelle. He sucked in a breath and looked back down at her name, there it was in black and white, "Stacie McMahon." He shook his head and smirked, she had to be cussin' her daddy now.

"Hey Deadman," Paul slid down in the seat next to him, they were in the air port bound for Idaho. Mark's eyes diverted over to Michelle, Stephanie was making small talk with her and Mark knew immediately where this was going.

"So I guess you're here to warn me?" Mark said, without looking at Paul. He knew Paul was trying to soothe over any alarms that was going on his head. Paul may not have any control over the business, but he was better at these sort of things than Stephanie was.

"Well, yeah… I mean you two have had a past…"

"Paul, I know where this is heading. We're fine. I'm fine. I'm sure she's fine. It's just that, the past. Alright? It's been 10 years now."

"I know, I'm just saying – if you need to vent or vedge, I've got your back." Mark looked at Paul and smirked.

"You know having all those girls around, I think you're growing a uterus." Paul chuckled and elbowed him before getting up and joining his wife causing Michelle to come back over and join him.

"Here you go babe," she handed him a piping hot cup of coffee from Starbucks. Mark smiled and took it.

"I didn't even know that Mr. McMahon had another daughter!" Michelle exclaimed, apparently Stephanie had been filling her in.

"Yeah, she's the middle child, didn't have any desire to be in front of the camera back in the day. I was originally supposed to abduct her." Mark remembered, Vince was going to give them some more time together at the time the story line was in creative writing. That whole story line was supposed to be completely different, Stacie was going to betray her family and join the dark side… but when the two ended their relationship, they took the route that everyone knows now.

"Well, what happened?"

"Stacie wanted different things for her life." There were multiple meanings to that statement, Mark thought.

"So you knew her?" _Oh… I "knew" her alright. _Mark thought to himself.

"Yeah…" Mark figured he'd be as vague as possible.

"Well, what's she like? Is she going to be wrestling?" Mark had to stop himself from laughing, Stacie wouldn't wrestle if her life depended on it.

"I doubt it, she's more business minded if I remember correctly."

"Yeah, Steph said something about bringing in Stacie because she would bring balance to the family dilemma known as McMahon."

"It'll be interesting," Mark declared, plating a light kiss on the top of Michelle's head. His worries began to decrease, it had been 10 years… everything would be fine. Mark leaned back looked at his watch, it was about time to board the plane for their flight to Idaho, he wondered if Stacie was flying into Idaho at the same time – he had to brace himself for seeing her again, regardless of the fact that they had moved on, he hadn't seen her in years; and who knows what that might look like in front of Michelle.

_Summer 1995_

Stacie brushed her blond hair out of her eyes and finished unloading the last of the costumes needed for tonight's pay per view. It had been a long week – the week of Summer Slam was always the week where all the meticulous planning was acted out and it made every move strenuous. She was just glad that now, for the most part, things were settled. She took a deep breath and looked around, noting everything that needed to be there when she felt two big arms snake around her hips. A smile tugged at her lips and she instinctively leaned back against him.

"Hey you…"

"Hey darlin'…" Mark growled low into her ear, followed by a series of light kisses on her neck. She felt the jolt of electricity up her spine. They had only been dating a few months, but this man literally held her heart in his hands.

"Someone may see us…"

"Hmm… true…" she felt him tighten his grip around her waist and dragged her around the corner into a dark hall way, moving her around him and pinning her against the wall.

"I've missed you." He murmured before bringing his lips down to hers in a rough kiss. Stacie's hand immediately went into his red hair bringing him as close as physically possible. They didn't have enough moments like this, and she had learned to savor every moment.

__________________________

Stacie fluttered her eyes open and looked around, ah yes, she was in a plane… heading to Idaho… for her job. She cracked her neck and straightened herself out. That was the second dream she had in a row of her and Mark. It was probably just her mind making sense of everything, so that she could handle dealing him in a few hours. She noted she didn't have the cold sweat and her heart wasn't pounding quiet as hard. _Good girl…_ she applauded herself in her head.

"Sleep good?" her dad asked her, her eyes wandered across the aisle at her dad.

"Yeah, I think I'm exhausting myself getting worried about tonight."

"Don't worry about it, you have no speaking parts. We're just introducing you…" _Yeah, and then catapulting my face into thousands of homes…_she thought.

"So… the obvious elephant in the room." Stacie felt her self tense, she knew her dad meant Mark. She had to play it cool and calm.

"Mark? Why is everyone but me having a hard time with this?"

"Just worried…"

"It's been,"  
"Ten years, I know" her dad said cutting her off. Stacie really did think her dad had a harder time with their break up than she or Mark did. He had dreams of her marrying him, which would have been great for the company. She felt herself tear a little at the seam she had mended on her heart, another reason why they never would have worked out. Mark had thought that she was being put up to staying with him on the account of her dad. Quiet the contrary, her dad had tried everything in his power to break them up when he found out. He yanked her from working as stage crew on the road, and had her intern in the creative development in the offices back home. Mark flew out to see her and they had rendezvous' in New York on the weekends or she would fly to Texas on his breaks. Finally they decided to move in together to "prove a point" to her dad. He eventually succumbed and soon enough she was working in creative development on the road while finishing her Masters. Life was bliss… Stacie was stirred from her thoughts when she noted her dad standing up and getting his bags from the overhead storage. She moved to do the same, it was now do or die. In a few hours she'd be face to face with Mark Calaway.

"You know, I can arrange things to where neither of you have to see each other." Her dad piped in.

"No Dad, what kind of message is that? We're grown, mature adults and I harbor no ill will towards him. It'll be fine, it may be awkward at first, but it'll all be fine." Stacie flashed him a reassuring smile and followed him out of the plane.


	2. Lesson's Learned?

_You're the best  
And yes I do regret  
How I could let myself  
Let you go  
Now the lesson's learned  
I touched it I was burned_

Stacie had had the benefit of continuing to watch Mark on t.v. She had seen his change when Sara had entered the picture with the biker personification. Though she had no hand in that story line, the rumor was he was wanting to retire and that was his nod to his fans. But something had happened, and things quickly changed. Soon after, he and Sara had divorced, it wasn't rocket science for Stacie. She, by this point was used to seeing him, at least on television, so when she arrived the air port with her family he was easy to spot across the terminal heading to the baggage claim. She lingered behind, fidgeting with her pocket book trying to find her phone, which was legit. She needed to call… well… someone.

"Stop it." Shane said grabbing her by the elbow and dragging her towards baggage claim.

"I can't help it."

"Can't help it? Aren't you the one that's been adamant about it being years since…"

"Exactly. I have not seen the man in **ten** years. That's a long time to go without seeing them. I'm scared it's going to open up feelings…"

"I know. But I assure you, he's moved on, sis." Those words hurt her, but Shane was trying to be caring and business like at the same time. He wanted her to get on the ball, she couldn't be a nervous bundle of mess around Mark. Stacie nodded and kept her eyes dead ahead, besides, the air port was crowded, what were the odds they would actually see each other?

__________________________________________

Mark could feel her presence, it was a feeling he hadn't felt in the longest time. It was as if their two souls had never parted, but were only asleep and the minute his knew hers was in the same vicinity as he was, every fiber of his being was alive an alert. Mark immediately turned around and sure enough, there she was beside Shane. Mark sucked in a breath, he hadn't seen her since their last fight, a few days before she left. Her hair was longer now, down past her shoulders, it was still blond and her 5'5" frame seemed so tiny compared to all the people walking around. Her hazel eyes were searching for something, surely not him, and then their eyes locked and he swore for a brief moment that time stopped. He saw her chest rise and fall heavily before diverting her eyes away and following her brother to their baggage claim. His eyes followed after her and he had to fight every urge to not go after her. _And then what? Say hi? Just keep doing what you both have been doing these past 10 years. Avoid each other. _He looked to Michelle as she linked her arm around his, _at all costs._

Mark grabbed his bags and went to turn to head out to the buses that were waiting for everyone to take them to the hotel. He placed his bags and Michelle's over his shoulder and led her with his free arm, nodding to other wrestlers as he passed, one being Shawn Michaels.

"Hey, hey Mark."

"'Sup kid?"

"See the 'Other McMahon?'" Shawn laughed nudging Mark in the ribs with his elbow. Mark shot him a "go to hell look" and nodded down to an oblivious Michelle, who was, thankfully, on her cell phone. Shawn's eyes shot up in surprise as the realization came across his face that Michelle didn't know about Mark and Stacie's past.

"Ah, I see… um…" Shawn stuttered trying to change the subject.

"But yes. I did see her. Seems like she'll have her hands full with that story line."

"Yeah, she has a lot to deal with." Mark caught on to the dual meaning of that and rolled his eyes at Shawn.

"Yeah." Mark kept his eyes ahead, he had to make the rounds with those that knew of him Stacie to can it, to make sure Michelle didn't find out before he was able to let her know. Mark and Michelle moved their way onto the bus and settled in, Michelle putting her head phones on and started getting immersed in a book she was reading. Mark watched as people started to pile on and felt his jaw muscles tense when he saw the whole McMahon family climb aboard. Stacie didn't bother looking at him, she was on the phone talking to someone and she was busy moving her luggage around Stephanie's baby bags, Shane's brief case and a stroller Vince was carrying for the two younger grandchildren. It was amazing to see how that family had grown over the years, which led Mark's thoughts to wondering if Stacie had someone in her life. Maybe that's who she was on the phone with. Mark glanced at her left hand and noted he didn't see either an engagement or wedding band on her all important ring finger. No one ever filled him in on anything with Stacie, it was something you never talked about. He had even missed Paul's wedding since Stacie was obviously her sister's Maid of Honor – he just didn't feel like it was appropriate. At least that's what he told himself.

His and Stacie's relationship was quiet possibly the best relationship he had ever had; she understood him like no one else ever had and possibly ever will and in the end that's what ended the relationship. They understood each other to the core, so therefore they knew which buttons to push on each other. She knew he was a commitment phobe and knew it would come down to "do or die" but she took the chance anyway. He knew how much security meant to her and how meticulous everything had to be, but had a daring kind of side. I guess that's why their relationship lasted as long as it did, she kept hoping on risk. And then there was the night of the big fight…

_March 1999_

Stacie slammed the door to her hotel room in Mark's face causing his blood to boil even more. They had an agreement, no one was to know they were an item lest the fans and other wrestlers go stir fucking crazy over it. It was bad enough older wrestlers knowing, if the new blood got wind of it, he'd never hear the end of it.

"Goddamn it Stacie, open the fucking door!"

True to her nature, she flung the door open and stared him down, her hazel eyes on fire from the anger inside of her. To his fault, he couldn't blame her, for four years he had intentionally left her in the dark about where they were heading for the mere fact he didn't even know. He knew she was growing tired of feeling like they had to hide it, and he sometimes over stepped it by flirting with women, and tonight he had gone a bit too far with too much alcohol in his system and kissed another woman.

"Where the hell are we heading Mark?" Mark moved into her room and shut the door, leading her to the bed and sat her down gently and kneeled in front of her, raising a hand to stroke her cheek.

"The honest answer is, I don't know." She snickered at him and swatted his hand away.

"That's all you've been saying for the past year and a half. I'm not asking for marriage, but just some respect to my wishes to be recognized as yours." Mark felt his heart drop, knowing how much his actions had been causing her to hurt.

"Darlin'… I know… it's just." She shot up a hand.

"Don't…. don't even." He sighed and ran a hand through his long dark hair and looked down at the ground.

"I do know… that I love you… and tonight… I just got carried away, and I know it hurt you, I know I hurt you… but you've got to admit these past few weeks have been crazy." Which was true, Stacie had just suffered a miscarriage and had all sorts of ideas and worries running through her mind. He could understand her need for some sort of serious commitment. He waited for any recognition from her, but all she did was keep her head tilted down, not bothering to wipe away the tears that fell from her eyes.

"Darlin', don't cry… we're going to be okay… aren't we?" Mark brought her in close in his arms, waiting for her to respond.

"I'm tired. I'm going to bed."

"Do you want me too…"

"No. I need some time to think."

"Stacie… please… "

"Please… Mark, just leave…" Stacie turned away from him and went into her bathroom. A few moments later he heard the shower running and he sighed and figured he'd give her some room to breathe. She had been an emotional wreck since the miscarriage and he didn't want to push it.

The following week when Mark returned to their home in Texas, he found her things gone, her key on the counter and a letter. He never read that letter, as a matter of fact it was in the bottom of box that was in his safety deposit box at a bank in Texas. In that box was every memento from their relationship… and he didn't need to read that letter to know what she had said. He had fucked it up, she couldn't handle it any more and left.

The "what if's" still plagued his mind.


	3. Funny The Things You Remember

Stacie finally got settled in the bus and sat her oldest niece in her lap and kissed her cheek. She was wedged between her dad and Shane, the two obviously being protective but she ignored it, this was just them. Her heart about melted with Aurora turned around and wrapped her arms around her neck and hugged her close; she did miss this. She rarely got to see her nieces because they stayed on the road with Paul and Stephanie, her two nephews, however, she saw quiet often since they were both in school. She made it a point to be active in their lives, she was their aunt and guardian and she herself had no children of her own and was bound and determined to be the best aunt she could be. She had seen Mark when she got on the bus, but ignored him, she was on a conference call with her bank about some Real Estate she was investing in and had to get that ball rolling and had figured if she just ignored him it would make things easier. But she could feel his eyes burning a hole in the back of her head, and figured the first few weeks would be awkward, so she might as well get used to it. There was one thing about Mark, once you had been his – even if it was for just a little while – in his mind, you would always be his.

"Acey?"

"Yes sweety?" She asked looking down at her niece, big brown eyes staring back into hers.

"Ice cweam." Stacie laughed.

"Breakfast first."

'Ice cweam!!" Aurora said with a bit of tantrum.

"No ma'am. Breakfast. We'll get ice cream tonight."

"No!" Stacie rummaged through the diaper bag and pulled out some cheerio's to satisfy Aurora for now.

"You know, when you are gonna settle down, Stace?" Paul asked from across the aisle, his arms full with Murphy who was nothing but a wiggle worm.

"Eventually, I guess. I kinda need a guy to do that though." She rose a brow at her brother-in-law, not liking where this was heading.

"Well you know, we've got tons of eligible bachelor's around here."

"Haha, no. I'm good, thanks."

"Oh, c'mon Stace, you can't be a spinster your whole life."

"Can and will!" Stacie laughed, noticing Paul was beginning to talk a bit louder, obviously trying to get other people's attention.

"You know Stacie, maybe you need an older man in your life…" Jerry Lawler piped in from the back. _Oh dear God, what have I gotten myself into?_ Stacie thought to herself, laughing genuinely out loud.

"No thanks Jerry! I'm good!"

"Hmm… maybe a young stud…" Carlito popped up from behind Jerry, with a huge grin. "Older women, you know..."

"I'm thirty four!!!" Stacie exclaimed shaking her head and nudging her dad, who was chuckling.

"Alright, alright guys…" Vince said standing up and turned to face most of his employees. "Many of you may or may not be aware but this young lady here is my daughter. I understand some of you may have already met her, and it is also to my understanding that some of you didn't even know she existed. Well, here she is, this is Stacie- she's going to be joining us on screen for a while. She's been with the WWE since she was 19 doing odds and ends and is currently head of Marketing at our head quarters. Since she is your superior, she is strictly off limits. Even to you Lawler." Lawler laughed from the back, Stacie knew he was joking, he always was the jokester. She sat back in her chair and continued playing with her niece and made small talk with a few of the wrestlers that came up to introduce themselves. She knew them, and of them, but had yet to actually meet a few of them; and in her heart of hearts she knew that these next few months would be a great change of pace, regardless of the man sitting four rows back.

______________________________________________________________

Mark listened to Vince introduce Stacie…

"This is Stacie…" _Stacie Faith McMahon, born October 23, 1975. Her favorite colors are khaki and lime green. She loves the Yankee's and New York Pizza. Her comfort food is Brownie Batter Ice Cream from Ben and Jerry's. She hates the beach but loves the mountains. Her favorite flower is an orchid and loves organic gardening. Her hands fits perfectly in yours and her body meshes with yours when she's asleep beside you,_ Mark thought to himself. He had occasionally thought of Stacie here and there, but it was more of "I wonder how's she doing." Now that she was here, literally just a few feet in front of him, his mind was intoxicated with memories of her. He was thankful she was on Raw and he on Smackdown, the opportunities to see each other dwindled down to just road time and after parties. Although, if she was like any of the other McMahon's, she's be back stage at Smackdown events as well. Mark sighed and continued to watch her enjoy her niece. She would have been a great mom, he thought recalling the child they lost. They would have been 10 years old had she not lost the baby, Mark furrowed his brow in thought, remembering how devastated she was when they went in for an ultrasound and found no heart beat. She had been inconsolable for hours and Mark had felt absolutely helpless; but hindsight being 20/20 it was probably for the best. They would be raising a child as single parents and Michelle hated kids anyway. _Unless… we never ended things. When did we actually end? After the miscarriage or that rainy night in Washington?_ He thought.

Mark sighed and nudged Michelle as their bus came to a stop, she smiled up at him and removed her head phones.

"How much time do we have until we have be at the arena?" Michelle asked with a playful grin. Any other time and Mark would be up for a little action, but with Stacie on the brain it wouldn't be fair to Michelle, it would be like kissing Michelle but tasting Stacie. Amazing how memories burn into your memory.

"Probably enough time to grab a bite to eat," Mark replied, bending down to give Michelle a quick kiss on the forehead. He felt her sigh heavily and hoped later on tonight he could make it up to her. Mark grabbed their bags from the overhead compartment and moved into the aisle. The McMahons were waiting on everyone else to get off, and there was Stacie, holding a now sleeping Aurora in her arms. For a moment their eyes locked once more and lingered longer than they did the last time in the air port. It used to be they could have a conversation with their eyes, he could look at her and know exactly what she was thinking or feeling – now all they read were "Steer clear of me." Mark looked away and exited the bus, he couldn't blame her; she had more at stake now than ever before. She was his superior, she had a life to herself now and was probably just as uncomfortable as he was. His thoughts were interrupted when Vince called out to him.

"Mark. How about dinner tonight, after we're all done with Raw?" Mark froze in his tracks causing the line to exit the bus halt, Michelle moved on out ahead of him and met up with her girls, obviously irked that now they were going to get absolutely no alone time. All that was left in the bus were Jerry Lawler, Shawn Michael, The Levesque's, Jim Ross, and Paul Wright. Basically, everyone that knew of him and Stacie's past. Mark looked past Vince and to Stacie, who's eyes were on her dad with a "What the hell are you doing?" look.

"Uh.. well…"

"Oh, come, come Mark. We have much to discuss." The awkward feeling was so thick you could cut it with a knife and the silence was deafening in the bus. All eyes were on Mark, finally Paul Levesque's cough broke the silence.

"Sure Mark, it'll be like old times." Mark watched Stacie's vision shift to her brother-in-law and then to Mark. She finally just rolled her eyes and shrugged and moved past her dad and Mark before calling over her shoulder.

"Just let me know what time, I'm going on in to change."

"How about it Mark?" Vince asked.

"Sure… I'll just be backstage going over this weeks script." Mark finally got out.

"Excellent, come by our dressing room around 10." Mark nodded and moved on out of the bus, not liking this at all. So much for avoiding Stacie like the plague.

______________________________________________________

Stacie sat backstage waiting for her cue to enter the ring. Her dad and mother were already out there discussing the "family business" and how they couldn't see Shane or Stephanie stepping up to the plate. She kind of scoffed, in reality if there was anyone better for the job it was Shane and Stephanie, but this was for television. They had been trying to get on screen for over a year now, and finally it took Stacie writing her own contract and getting her dad to sign and shake on it, before she decided to do this. She felt Shane squeeze her hand as his music cued and we went out to "defend his name." The air was electric, she could hear the fans, smell the sweat mixed with smoke from the pyro's that went on earlier, and feel the vibrations from the speakers as her family spoke. Stephanie went on next and explained how much she had grown and had even managed to work things out with Triple H and continued with all the accomplishments she had done as General Manager. Their parents then explained that they needed someone who could over see both shows, as they were getting to retirement age and wanted more time for each other, then Shane and Stephanie bickered a little bit, and then Stacie's music hit. It was some generic entrance song that she didn't pick out… but whatever, she wanted to get this over with. She stepped through the curtain and kept as straight a face as possible when passing Shane and Stephanie were obviously "Oh so shocked to see their sister there." Stacie glided down the ramp, looking at the fans in the arena, noting that they were rather confused as to who she was.

Her dad held open the ropes for her as she stepped into the ring and took her place beside her mom.

"Dad! What the hell is she doing here?!" Stephanie exclaimed, her face written with bitchiness that only Steph could portray. It reminded Stacie of the good ol' days.

"Stephanie, I think you and Shane could learn a thing or two from your sister." And the crowd erupted in applause, for the first time ever, the whole McMahon clan was together in front of the camera. Oh yes, it was too good to be true. Stacie smiled and waved at the fans, and winked down to The King who was sitting ring side. She could hear him and Michael Cole going beserk and all of this was quiet entertaining. Everyone having to act shocked at her being there, when just a few minutes ago they were all back stage drinking coffee. Granted, it wasn't Oscar Worthy, but it was believable. She listened to her dad exclaim that she would be taking the reigns and giving WWE a face lift, that everyone would be seeing a lot of her and they best damn well respect her. She wondered if her dad just threw that in there as double edged sword to sincerely warn the people back stage. Before she knew it, their moment was over and Stephanie and Shane left for backstage in a huff and Stacie followed her parents up the ramp and backstage.

"See? Now was that so bad?" Shane asked laughing, throwing his arm over her shoulder.

"No. But I feel like that was ten minutes of my life I'm never getting back." Stacie retorted with a smile, but her smile soon faded as they rounded the corner and there was Mark outside of their dressing room. She had almost forgotten about dinner with him, and her heart got caught in her throat as she looked him over. He was wearing his blue jeans and a grey t-shirt, a black bandana was wrapped around his head and his long dark hair was tied back in a pony tail. She hated the dark hair, she much preferred his red hair, but apparently red was not "intimidating."

_October 1997 (*Author's note, no idea when he started sporting the dark hair, I think it was sometime in 1997, so humor me. Hehe)_

"Stacie? Stacie? Say something…" Mark furrowed his brows looking down at Stacie who stood in the bathroom door way with an un amused face.

"What the hell?"

"I dyed it."

"I can see that…"

"Well…"

"I don't like it…" Stacie said, kind of with a whine.

"It's just for work…" Stacie scrunched her nose at him.

"I prefer the red, but at least it doesn't make you completely hideous." Mark smiled down at her, if she was anything with him, she was honest.

"Completely, huh?"

"Yeah… just a little bit…" she smirked and looped her fingers in his belt loops and brought him closer to her. He knew where this was heading and pulled her close and shut the bathroom door.

_______________________________________________

"So where are we heading?" Paul asked interrupting Stacie's thoughts, she shook the cobwebs and looked to her brother-in-law.

"I made reservations at P.F. Chang's, and the limo is waiting." Her dad declared clasping his hands together and rubbing them. Stacie had wanted to change, she was still wearing her "ring garb" which was tight and uncomfy. It was a little black dress that showed way too much cleavage and these heels were going to be the death of her from tripping over them, so she grinned and bared it and followed behind her dad and Mark, lingering with her brother.

"So dad and Mark are still close?"

"Yeah, Mark's been faithful…" Shane stopped his sentence remembering why Stacie and Mark had broken up.

"Oh stop it Shane, don't go walking around on egg shells. Mark has been extremely faithful to the business." But it did kind of sting her heart strings, they could have something great, hell they could have been _**the**_ power couple of the WWE; but those dreams quickly vanquished. She sighed as she squeezed herself in the limo and found her self between the door and Mark. Not exactly where she was wanting to be at this moment, her body reacted to his scent as if it had been only yesterday that they had been together. He still smelled of leather and Coach for Men; a devastating combo and her mind went back to the days where she would sleep on his shirts because of the scent. She felt his arms tense as she leaned back, causing her arm to brush against his and then felt him relax. She swallowed hard and looked out the window as the rest of them made small talk. She knew if she opened her mouth, nothing but a jumbled mess would come out.

_________________________________________--

Mark was trying his damndest to keep his thoughts clear of her and was almost certain that Shane would have sat next to him leaving Stacie to sit beside her sister and mother, but when Shane squeezed himself between them and Stacie bent down to crawl in, he knew that this car ride was going to be hell. Not because he didn't want her to sit beside him, but all those familiar feelings came crawling back, he found himself stopping himself from giving her his hand to help her in, just like he used to. He had to stop himself from wrapping his arm around her, just like he used to. He found himself wanting her, just like he used to. It was like his heart was in some parallel universe where nothing had ever changed between them. He felt his body react to her arm brushing against his and felt her stop breathing for a moment, and then it hit him. She was feeling the exact same way… he had to get her to himself to talk. They had to talk through this, to get everything out in the open for closure. _Closure?_ He thought to himself, _Why the hell would I want closure?.... Because you have Michelle… but she's not Stacie. Hell, no one has been Stacie. Why am I even considering this? _Mark peeked down at her from his peripheral vision and caught her scent, Happy. Her trademark perfume. He felt like an addict that had found his addiction again. Without thinking he moved his arm to brush against her skin again and felt how smooth it was. He tried his best to keep up with the conversation, but his mind was else where.

_February 1995_

Stacie and he had been flirting shamelessly for a few weeks now, normally he ignored women's advances, but there was something about her that he was drawn to – and it wasn't the she was his bosses daughter. To his knowledge neither had mentioned the other to her dad, and that made this risky. He liked risky. He watched her as she stepped off the elevator of the hotel and made her way to her room, he looked around and quickly jogged down to her as she juggled her luggage and trying to get the door open.

"Need help?"

"Please." Stacie handed him a bag and he held the door open for her.

"What are you doing over here anyway, dead man? Aren't you afraid that someone might figure out you have a heart and consider it a weakness?" She chuckled as she sat down her garment bag and moved to flip on the light, but his hand caught hers before she could and were engulfed in darkness as the door to her room shut. He didn't really know what he was doing, but he felt like this was the right thing to do. He pulled her close to gage where she was at in relation to his body and slowly ran his hands up her back and around her neck to hold her face in his hands. His thumb stroked gently over her lips and he bent down to gently kiss her. He pulled back for a moment and breathed in her scent and he caught a whiff of her perfume.

"What perfume are you wearing?" He asked in a husky tone.

"Happy..." She barely got it out.

"Don't ever stop wearing it..." He breathed out and bent down again and kissed her more firmly feeling her body melt into his.

_____________________________________

Stacie couldn't have been more thankful to get to the restaurant, when the valet opened her door she was the first to get out, sitting next to Mark was a horrible idea and she was going to have a word of prayer with her brother. She took in a deep breath before turning around to face her family and Mark getting out of the limo and flashed them all a smile. Damned if she was going to appear like she couldn't contain her composure, and then Mark's eyes locked onto hers and she watched in horror as he got out of the limo, all 6'10" of him making her feel incredibly tiny, and he took her arm and wrapped it around his elbow. Without thinking she followed suit, feeling her families eyes burning holes in their backs.

"What are you doing?" She whispered to him in a harsh tone.

"Being a gentleman." He whispered back.

"You really don't…"

"Shut up Stacie…" Stacie snapped her mouth shut. He only said that when he had something on his mind and was processing things. Tonight was not going to end well… right now all she wanted was a hot bath and a stiff drink. She let out a sigh of relief as he let her go and moved to sit diagonal to her allowing her brother to sit across from her, her brothers eyes full of amusement. It was almost as if her family was gunning for them to get back together, but she quickly dismissed the idea, there's no way her family would do that to her. Not after everything that had happened since then.

"Can I take your drinks?" A waiter asked as they were getting settled. Stacie looked at Mark and knew instinctively what he was going to order, and Irish Buck – a whiskey drink.

"I'll take a Irish Buck," Mark said while opening his menu. Stacie was right, he was a creature of habit.

"I'm sorry sir, what's an Irish Buck?" The waiter asked, a confused and embarrassed look on his face.

"It's a whisky drink - A shot of whisky, a splash of gingerale, and some lemon peel." Stacie replied without thinking and then mentally kicked herself, this was going to be a hell of a night. She looked up and saw Mark's eye brows raise in surprise that she remembered.

"Funny the things you remember, huh?" She replied trying to wiggle her way out of it. She made the first move in addressing what everyone skipped around, and referenced their past. She was relieved when Mark smiled subtly and looked at the waiter.

"She'll take a One Night Stand," Mark said, remembering her favorite drink. She was going to order wine, but a One Night Stand did sound divine right now. She watched as her family exchanged looks and prayed that this would be the start of the awkwardness wearing off.


	4. Sometime Around Midnight Chapter 4

_And so there's a change...  
In your emotions  
And all of these memories come rushing  
Like feral waves to your mind  
Of the curl of your bodies  
Like two perfect circles entwined  
And you feel hopeless, and homeless  
And lost in the haze  
Of the wine_

Dinner went well, but it was too short for Mark's liking – he didn't have a clue what he was doing, but it wasn't until Stacie was back in his life that he realized just how much he missed her and just how much he had been fooling himself. Stacie had definitely eased since the limo ride, it could have been the alcohol, or maybe it was just because they had gotten past that awkward "How do you do?" phase some ex's have to go through. Whatever it was, she was morphing into the Stacie he knew and fell in love with. She was laughing again and that sparkle in her eyes had come back. Her blonde hair had waves to it and framed her face perfectly. Mark had to remind himself to breathe.

"Well guys, this has been fun. Mark, thank you for joining us," Vince's voice shook his thoughts and he stood with the rest of the family who was standing up grabbing their things.

"Thank you Vince, it was my pleasure." Mark extended his hand and shook Vince's, Shane's and Paul's; just then Shane's phone rang and he excused himself to answer it, coming back after just a moment.

"I don't know who's interested, but a few of the guys are down the block at the bar. There's a band playing, dollar shots and dancing. I'm going, since it's rare that get night's out. Stacie, you want to go?"

"Sure." Stacie beamed at her brother, she always was a night owl. Mark decided to join in.

"Mind if I tag along? I haven't really had a good night out myself here lately."

"The more the merrier," Stacie laughed, it could have been part alcohol, but for the most part Mark was pretty sure she was just getting comfortable around him again. In his mind that was dangerous, the more she regained the way she was, the more he found himself wishing for the way things used to be with her.

"Do you want us to call a cab and you guys take the limo?" Linda asked?  
"Nah," Shane replied, "We'll grab a taxi, you guys go on." The family said their goodbyes and the three made their way down to the bar. Mark's nostrils were greeted with the smell of beer and smoke, a familiar smell he welcomed. He rarely got to go to bars now a days, Michelle didn't much care for them; he glanced down at Stacie who was standing in front of him looking up at the bar, trying to figure out what to get.

"I'm buying," Mark leaned down and said in her ear. The band was loud, but good. He felt himself begin to get a buzz off feeling alive again. Funny thing was, he didn't realize he was dead to begin with.

"You don't have too." She said, tilting her head up, eyes dancing still with life.

"Eh, I want too." He smiled down at her and placed his card on the bar. "Tab. Calaway." The bar tender nodded and looked at Stacie.

"Two shots of Jack and 2 Budwesiers." Stacie called out, Mark grinned. That was their usual drink of choice when they came out….

_January 1996_

"Ever done a body shot?" Stacie called out above the music, her eyes full of mischief. Mark quirked his eye brow at his lil lady.

"Not since college! And she wasn't near as beautiful." He let out, his southern drawl in full affect after the drinks he had, had.

"BODY SHOT!" The bartender let out and cleared off a spot on the bar for Stacie to lay down on. Mark picked her up by the waist and hoisted her to the bar, his fingers lingering a but longer than necessary, but who cared? The boys gathered around to watch this, everyone loved Mark and Stacie and thought they were perfect for each other. Mark reminded Stacie to not be so meticulous all the time, and she reminded him to loosen up. Put them together, and you never knew what you would get. Mark moved Stacies tank top up a bit to expose her navel as she laid down and licked from her belly button to under her breast and sprinkled salt behind him. Stacie placed the shot of tequila in between her cleavage and the lime in her mouth and gave him a wink. Mark knew he was falling for her and falling for her hard and smiled at that fact as he bent down to take the shot.

_______________

Stacie moved past Mark who seemed to be lost in thought, she had already taken her shot and moved to go listen to the band with her brother. She was so thankful they were getting along and knew that perhaps they could at least be friends. She noted a few of the other wrestlers around, Paul Wright, Batista, Cena, Mickie, Punk, Jericho, Adam, Matt and Maria. There was a crowd from the WWE tonight, but at least they all seemed to be getting along.

"Who's playing?" Stacie asked Chris over his shoulder, he turned and greeted her with a smile and a hug. He may play an ass on Smackdown but he was a genuinely good guy.

"Airborn Toxic Event, ever heard of them?"

"Hell yes! Love them!!" She couldn't believe she didn't recognize them, tonight was absolutely perfect.

"Yeah, they're one of my favorites! Can I get you another drink?"

"No, but thanks!"

"Well then, want to dance?" Chris nodded over to the dance floor which made her smile. _Why not? It's been years since you've done anything like this. Let loose a little bit._

"Sure!" She smiled and took his hand and followed him out to the dance floor just as _Like Gasoline_ started. It was an uppidy song and she could feel herself become intoxicated with happiness, alcohol and the letting of her guard down as she and Chris twirled and spun on the dance floor. She found herself laughing with Chris and a few of the other guys and gals as they joined in as well – and then her eyes fell on Mark and she saw that familiar spark in his emerald eyes. The way he was looking at her made her heart catch in her throat, no one had ever looked at her like that, just him. It was the look he'd give her, knowing only she would understand it. It was the look of desire. Under any other circumstances she might would play on this – but they had a history, he had a girlfriend, and she had made a promise to herself. She quickly turned her back to Mark and finished dancing with Chris, trying her best to ignore the looming giant behind her. After a few songs she hugged Chris and tried her best to weasel her way out of the bar.

"I think I'm getting a little too drunk…" She had to talk slowly, knowing she would start to slur and her slowness got her tickled and Chris tickled and soon they were both giggling.

"Let me… cab call you." Chris snorted out, knowing he had mixed up his words, but his laughter died slowly as he looked over her shoulder. She snapped her neck around to see who he was staring at but knew already it was Mark.

"Dance?" Mark blurted out, he was obviously a bit intoxicated. _Do it_ her heart screamed. _You're asking for trouble,_ her mind retorted. Before an internal argument could commence she slipped her hand in his and felt herself being led out to the dance floor.

"And it starts, sometime around a midnight, at least that's when you loose yourself for a minute or two…" The lead singer started to sing the one song that was quiet possible the most inappropriate song, _Sometime Around Midnight._ Just perfect for her and Mark, the song about 2 exes bumping into each other at a bar. Perfect.

Mark pulled her close, feeling every curve of her body against his skin. It was a little known fact but he could dance. He wrapped his arm around the small of her back and began to lead with his hips, moving in small waves. He knew this was definitely asking for trouble when their eyes locked and for the next few minutes they were the only two people in the room.

"As you stand… under the bar lights, and the band plays some song about forgetting yourself for a while. And the piano is this melancholy sound check to her smile…" the band continues. Mark moved her closer with his other hand, never loosing eye contact with her and started to listen to the lyrics more closely…

"And that white dress she's wearing, you haven't seen her for a while. But you know that she's watching. She's laughing she turning, she's holding her tonic like a cross. The room's suddenly spinning, she walks up and asks how you are. So you can smell her perfume and you can see her lying naked in her arms. And so there's a change in your emotions, and all of these memories come rushing like feral waves to your mind. Of the curl of your bodies are two perfect circles entwined. And you feel hopeless and homeless and lost in the haze of the wine…"

Mark watched as she turned her body so her back was pressed against him, and she moved his arm around her hip as they continued to dance. He noticed her eyes were closed as she moved her body to the music. In this moment they were two old souls reconnecting, Mark held her closer feeling every movement of her body and felt himself starting to get a little hot under the collar. He caught another whiff of her perfume as she tilted her head to the side to brush her hair to the side, and he had to fight the urge to bend down and kiss her neck. He was treading in dangerous water, but he looked around anyway to note where everyone was and noticed that most of them had left, the only people left were Cena and Maria and they were busy making out in a corner. _What the hell are you doing?_ He thought as he tightened his grip around her and dragged her back past the stage and out through the alley door.


	5. What Would Happen If We

_Stripped my senses on the spot.  
I've never been defenseless.  
I can't even make sense of this.  
You speak and I don't hear a word  
What would happen if we kissed….  
Would your tongue slip past my lips?  
Would you run away?  
Would you stay?  
Or would I melt into you?  
Mouth to mouth, lust to lust… spontaneously combust?_

The only light was the light from the street lamp down the way and the moon, but it was just enough light to see the surprise on her face, before she could start reasoning with him or he would chicken out. She was able to get out, "What are you…" but he caught her off guard, pushed her against the alley way wall and pressed his lips to hers. Her lips were smooth, just as he remembered; his nostrils breathed her in. He could feel every nerve ending on fire in his body, so he deepened the kiss. Much to his surprise she returned the kiss, her hands coming up around his neck to hold herself steady. Mark groaned ran his tongue over her lips and probed her mouth, feeling a flood of sensations overtake his body. He was about to throw all caution to the wind and take her right there in the alley way not caring if God himself saw, when she suddenly pushed him away.

"Mark, we cannot do this…" she declared, pushing off him and scooting past him down the alley way.

"Stacie! Stacie! Wait!" Mark started after her.

"Please Mark, you know we can't…." his mind went back to Michelle.... and he placed both hands on the back of his head in frustration and watched Stacie walk down the alleyway and disappear to the right. Frustrated he kicked the wall, and wheeled around and back inside the bar to find Shane and get the hell out of here.

______________

Stacie leaned against the wall to the bar gasping, _What the hell was that?!_ But she knew she couldn't answer herself, she had let herself get to close and she got burned. That's what happened… but then again both had been drinking and caught up in the moment. Maybe they just needed to get all of this out of their system, lest they deal with it for months on end. She straightened herself up and was about to call a cab when Shane came out of the bar.

"Thank God! There you are! I was looking for you, Mark said you had stepped out for some fresh air." Just then Mark came out behind Shane, and he looked none to happy. Oh well, he'd thank her in the morning when his relationship with Michelle was still in tact. She refused to be the reason for any woman feeling the way she felt years ago.

"Yeah, I thought you had left… I was getting ready to get a cab."

"It's alright, the hotel is sending us one, I just called." Stacie nodded and stood there with Shane in between her and Mark; poor Shane was completely oblivious to what had just happened, and she wished she could be too. She wished she could block it out and pretend it never happened. She stole a look at Mark, he was looking dead ahead, his jaw clenched tight and that tiny vein in his head poking out just a little bit He was mad, but she knew him well enough to know he was mad at himself. She sighed inwardly, so much for not having awkward.

_2 Weeks Later_

By the looks of things, everything had soothed over between Stacie and Mark; he actually found her back stage one night and apologized – blaming most of it on heat of the moment and the alcohol, which she completely understood. What business did they have getting back together, so much had changed. And from what she could tell, at least from a distance, Mark and Michelle seemed to have a good relationship. Stacie did wonder if at times Michelle was using her status as Mark's girlfriend to get her way, but that was not in her jurisdiction and didn't pursue it any farther than just curiosity.

She had busied herself in her work and if she wasn't at the arena, she was in her hotel room on the computer working on marketing for the WWE as well as her real estate business; and that's where she was today. She took a swallow of her coffee before clicking though a number of e-mails, each about different houses across the east coast. She had gotten into the business of house flipping, but not just any house flipping, she took historic houses, restored them and sold them to collector's. It was like antique collecting on steroids. And the job made bank, but so did her WWE job, so she donated any proceeds of her house flipping to various charities. It made her feel like she was making a difference.

She leaned back in her chair and removed her thin glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose when she heard a knock. Without thinking she answered.

"Come in."

"Hey Stace…" her eyes jotted open at seeing it was Mark, he was wearing only his work out pants and had a towel haphazardly thrown over his shoulders. He must have been working out… she had to make a conscious effort to not stare at his chest.

"Hey…"

"Surprised?"

"A bit…."

"Yeah, um well… are you busy?"

"It can wait…" She saw Mark's eyes fall on the screen and saw that she was looking at Real Estate.

"Ah! That's what I came to talk to you about!"

"What? My computer?"

"No. Real Estate."

"Since when did you…" this move surprised her. She never saw Mark as a real estate kinda guy.

"Well, a friend of mine and I, we own a real estate investment company…"

"And….?" Stacie didn't want to ask, but at the same time her interest in real estate took the better of her.

"We just bought a historic building in Colorado, I was telling your dad about it and he told me what you did with flipping houses."

"I flip houses. You said building." Now Stacie was wanting to back pedal.

"It's an old factory we're converting into apartment lofts. Would you be interested in coming out and… well… doing whatever it is you do?"

"…. I'll have to think about it. We've got Wrestlemania coming up in 6 months so I'm up to my eye balls in meetings until…"

"You have a week free the end of the month." Stacie rose her eye brows at him in shock. "You're dad suggested it."

"Did he?" Stacie's voice was thick with unamusement. "Well… I guess…"

"I'll make arrangements then. Would you prefer a hotel or the guest quarters at the house I just bought out there?"

"A hotel…" she thought she saw a look of disappointment cross his features, but it might have been wishful thinking. He and Michelle had been doing rather well for themselves, and if he was happy with her then that was enough for her. At least, that's what she told herself.

____

Mark left Stacie's room nervous and excited, although he wasn't sure why. He continually told himself over and over again that this was strictly business and he was adamant that nothing was left between the two. He just figured it was from nerves from life in general, Michelle had been pushing him more and more towards marriage, and while he would normally buck under this pressure, he knew he was slowing down and settling with her would be for the best. At least that's what he thought.

"Hey babe?" Mark's thoughts were shaken when Michelle rounded the corner, looking for him. He smiled, she was wearing on his t-shirts, it nearly swallowed her whole. Her hair was slicked back in a pony tail and she had yet to take off her sunglasses.

"Yeah?"

"So I'm going to off for about 2 weeks the week after next. Don't you have some down time coming up?"

"Yeah, yeah I do. I'm going to have to go attend to some business in Colorado, but I can meet up with you the following week. As a matter of fact," he fumbled in his pocket for the spare key he just had made for her, "Why don't you just go ahead and fly into Houston, stay at my ranch till I get there?" He saw her face light up, it wasn't marriage, but it was the next step.

"Really babe?"

"Yeah, really…" Mark bent down to kiss her, smiling at the fact he had made her so happy. It felt good, but something in his heart was screaming that this was so terribly wrong.

____

Michelle's smile soon faded as she turned to leave Mark for the Diva's dressing room. She tossed the key he had just given her into her bag and rolled her eyes taking off her sunglasses. This man was a tough man to crack, but hopefully this was some sort of road to marriage. She had a plan, she was tired of hearing complaints from the Diva's backstage about how she was using Mark, and it was only a matter of time before Mark dumped her for the next new thing. She kept him wanting more in the bed room and teasing at the idea of having kids with him – his hearts desire. She smirked a bit, poor guy, she had her tubes tied during her first marriage. She couldn't stand kids, she was in this for the career jump that would happen after becoming Mrs. Calaway. For now, she could coast, she was the women's champ and was getting more time in the spot light, but she knew it wouldn't last long. She had to get a ring on her finger and fast.


	6. Something In The Way She Moves

_Something in the way she moves  
Attracts me like no other lover  
Something in the way she woos me  
I don't wanna leave her now  
You know I believe in hell…  
_

"This has got to be the lowest point in my life…" Stacie said as she sat backstage waiting for her solo moment on Smackdown. She didn't mind being on the road, she didn't mind working for the family business, she didn't even mind occasionally going in front of the camera. But she did not care for where this story line was heading. Her dear sweet daddy decided to get her in on the that damn Legacy story line. So far for the evening that Randy Orton had managed to get restraining orders against the McMahon's that left them just outside of the arena, except he had forgotten about Stacie. Now she was going down to confront him.

"Relax girl." Maria said adjusting a strap that was twisted on Stacie's dress. For whatever reason the creator's decided to give her a pin up girl look. "God, I would kill for your curves."

"It's not curves sweety, it's being squeezed into outfits that push your plush around to give you the illusion of curves." Stacie laughed turning to face Maria. Maria was nothing more than a sweet heart and she and Stacie had become pretty fast friends. It was nice to have someone there to talk too before moments like these. She sighed and gave Maria a reassuring smile as her music hit, thank God they had changed it, per her request, now it was Heart Shaped Glasses by Marylin Manson. She was a bit nervous, she was supposed to get "attacked" and while Orton had gone over it today, like a well cheographed dance, she had never ever imagined herself ever getting physical in the ring. Oh well… do or die and she sucked in a breath and left for the ramp.

_______________________

"She's a hot little number," Cena said, a few of the Smackdown wrestlers had gathered around a television backstage to watch the drama unfold. Mark was one of them, and he had to agree. They had her in this flirty yellow dress, her hair was pinned back with a red rose and her jewelry and shoes were a cherry red. She was a natural on the mic, reminding Orton that while she may not have been up front and center, she was the one backstage that had pushed for him to have a job. She was good at playing the even cool; maybe McMahon was right, Stacie did bring balance to the WWE. She had no drama attached to her, she was attractive, and kept a cool demeanor.

"Yeah," Maria said, "I hope she decides to continue with this, her contract is only good for six months I think."

"Why six months?" Mark asked, that was such a short amount of time.

"I don't think she enjoys this," Maria shrugged, "She's more of a homebody. She really misses her home and normalcy of it, I can't blame her. She felt like she was selling out to herself by even doing this."

"Well, if you look at the McMahon's past in front of the camera, I can't really blame her." Cena said laughing, "That family is nothing but a drama magnet for this company. Mark nodded his head in agreement, Stacie hated pretending. Her family always acted so dysfunctional on the camera and the story lines her dad came up with were borderline unethical. Mark continued listening to Stacie and Orton hash it out and was about to turn to go get ready for his match when he noted Orton getting closer to Stacie.

"Surely he isn't going to…" Mark stuttered out, watching as Orton moved in to do an RKO on Stacie. Mark felt his blood run cold, even though he knew it was scripted, he knew Stacie had zilch wrestling knowledge. Mark's muscles tensed as he watched Orton move his hand around Stacie's neck and brought her down to the mat. He wasn't sure if she was acting or if she was really out cold. Orton's music was blaring as he made his way up the ramp and turned to look at Stacie in the ring – he then gave the symbol for medical help by tapping his chest twice with his fist. Orton was a dead man in Mark's eyes.

"You're a dead man Orton!" Mark roared as Orton came through the curtain.

"'Taker! We rehearsed it! This is just to be sure! Vince wanted medics to come out to double check her before she even moved." Mark snapped his eyes back to the television screen and watched as the medics rushed down to Stacie. He could see her lips moving and her eyes, there were no tears… and then it cut to commercial.

"Goddamn it…" Mark uttered beneath his breath and moved to the curtain peeking out just as Stacie moved past him holding her neck.

"That is the first and last time I ever get physical with any of you…" She blurted out, swatting away the paramedics aid of an ice pack.

"What the hell were you thinking?" Mark roared at her, "You could have hurt yourself! Killed yourself!"

"Excuse me, Mr. Calaway?" Stacie shot an eyebrow up and placed both hands on her hips, reminding him that she was still his boss – in a round about way.

"Sorry. Just… concerned since you've never…" Stacie waved her hand at him and walked off, rubbing at her neck. He then realized all the weird looks he was getting from the other wrestlers, including Michelle.

"I… promised Vince…. You know… well… she doesn't exactly know what it means to take those sorts of risks." Mark finally blurted out.

"Mark, she's Vince's daughter. You need to make sure you're not overstepping your boundaries." Michelle cooed up at him and wrapped her arm around him and lead him back to the back. Maria and John exchanged looks.

"God they make me sick."

"What?" John laughed...

"You know she's just using him!" Maria whispered in a hushed tone, pointing to Michelle as she disappeared down a corridor.

"Well… Mark seems happy." Maria just rolled her eyes and stalked off to find Stacie; she was probably just irked at Michelle's ego that had been getting bigger and bigger lately.

____

"Is your neck still bothering you?" Her dad asked, looking concerned as she continued to absent mindedly rub her neck. It had been nearly 2 weeks since Orton had RKO'd her, and she was still a little stiff.

"Just stiff." Vince placed his hand on the back of her neck and rubbed it gently. Her dad may play a class A bastard, but she knew that she was always his little girl. She smiled and closed her eyes at his touch as he massaged the lump out of her neck.

"Thanks daddy," just then Mark peeked his head into their family suite.

"Ready? We need to get to the air port here pretty soon." Stacie nodded and handed Mark her bags and followed him out to the waiting car. He barely spoke a word to her, but that was to be expected. Word had gotten out that he and Michelle were moving in together in a few weeks, and it was with that thought that she felt her heart wince. _Why couldn't he parade you around back stage? Everyone, __**even the fans**__, know of him and Michelle. The back stage crew… the other wrestlers… your parents. He even parades her in front of you._ Stacie couldn't help but feel a little jipped, she wasn't exactly plastic pretty, but she had managed to keep all the parts she was born with and feel secure in them. _Then screw him, if that's what he wants…_.._Great… 10 minutes into this trip and I've already made myself mad at him._

"We should get to Colorado around lunch time." Mark declared as he opened the car door for him. She just nodded at him and sat down. Two weeks in Colorado was two weeks too long, God she hoped this time would fly by. She watched as Mark stalked around the car and slid into his seat, readjusting the seat so his legs would at least half way fit.

"So I hear your contract is only good for another 5 months."

"Yeah… I can't take all this." Stacie knew that statement had a deeper meaning, she was hoping Mark wouldn't catch it.

"Well, you're certainly becoming a fan favorite and fast. Did you know you were the most googled person last week?"

"Really?" She didn't know, that was rather flattering.

"Maybe you should stay on longer?"

"That's highly doubtful Mark, and you know that." She heard Mark sigh and she turned to watch the scenery pass by her window. The sooner they could get to Colorado the better.

__________________

Mark was hoping she would take the bait for staying longer, but he knew better. She was a woman that once her mind was made up that was it. Most days, when they were together, that would drive him damn near insane, but he loved it at the same time. He never had to guess where she stood and she meant what she said, when she said it. He remembered the first time he told her that he loved her. It was an unusually warm night in November….

_November 1996_

Mark and Stacie were out on the deck of his little house in Texas, they had just finished dinner and Mark was the most content he had been in a while. He looked over at Stacie, she was rocking back and forth in the rocker with her eyes closed, listening to the sound of the crickets. She looked so content, they were so content – this was it. She was it.

"Hey darlin'?" Mark asked, rubbing his fingers down her arm and taking her hand in his.

"Mmm?' She replied, opening one eye to look at him. He couldn't help but smile, she had such a way of being completely endearing to him.

"I've been thinking…. And I want to know how you feel about maybe…. Moving in together?" Both of her eyes were on him now, and her features were wearing this hopefull yet hesitant look.

"Why?"

"Because…. Well… the truth of it is…. I, well, I love you." Mark continued to look her in the eye to show her he meant it, and was relieved he saw a grin crack at the corners of her lips. She surprised him by jumping up and leaping onto his lap, plastering the longest, hardest kiss he ever experienced.

"I love you…" she finally mumbled between kissing him.

_Stop it! _Mark thought to himself. _There can't be anything good about dwelling on the past._ His emerald eyes scanned back over to Stacie who was staring out the window, he could tell she was still uncomfortable in his presence and he couldn't blame her. Mark kept one hand on the wheel and ran his other hand over his goatee. The truth of it was, their lives were completely different from how he had ever imagined. After Stacie left Mark had drank himself into a stupor for weeks. He's go on, perform his Ministry of Darkness gig, wrestle some and sleep in the hotel. Everyone had been worried about him, including Stacie's parents and siblings. No one ever breathed Stacie's name to him, and he didn't dare ask Vince. Vince and he had a great working relationship, but Vince made it abundantly clear that if it had to come down to taking sides, he'd take Stacie's; amazingly no one ever asked why they had ended things and no one ever eluded to anything that had happened. They just knew things were over, Mark took it hard, and you didn't talk of Stacie. A few months after their split Mark had met Sara and he wasn't sure if it was out of a need to feel wanted or just a way to dull the pain, he somehow landed a wife.

Shortly after the marriage and he started the American Bad Ass identity, which involved Sara, he had overheard Shane talking to Stephanie about how Stacie quit watching wrestling – Mark could only imagine why. He had always been adamant not to parade a relationship around, and there he was doing it. He glanced back over to Stacie and immediately felt like an ass. She had sincerely gotten the short end of the stick and could only imagine how she was holding up and coping. No wonder she didn't want to stay around any longer than she had too.

"Stacie?"

"Hmm?" He felt her eyes on him, but he chose not too look – besides they were heading into the rental car return area of the air port, best keep his eyes on the road.

"Thanks for coming."

"Don't mention it."

Mark sighed inwardly and prayed for the first time in years that Stacie would be alright through all of this.

_________

Stacie settled in the chair next to Mark, it was a tight squeeze, but she'd manage. After that first night in the limo with Mark, this was a piece of cake. In her heart she knew she had to get around this and make the most of the situation so she gave herself a little pep talk. _Stacie Faith… you can do this. You told yourself over and over again that it's been 10 years; it appears that you are the one that can't seem to let any lingering feelings let go, so let them go. _She closer her eyes and took a deep breath, breathing it out slowly through her lips, _let him go…. Let him go…._ She felt a bit better and opened her eyes to see him looking down quizzacly at her.

"What?"

"Small spaces…" she lied. Oh well, he'd get the hell over it and she settled into her seat and opened the book she was reading. _Nice choice_ she thought, _ Romance Novel…._ She shoved the book back into her pocket book.

"So what have you been doing with your life these past ten years?" Mark finally broke the awkward silence.

"Well… I finished my masters in Communications… and then that wasn't enough so I got a doctorate in Theology.

"Theology?"

"I was bored…. And after working in Marketing for a while in the WWE, I finally found a house I loved, but it was old and falling apart, but it had some amazing wood working and an old feel to it. So I refurbished it to just about its original intent – and loved the whole process. So then I went to a Community College, yes… with a Doctorate… to get my real estate license, started buying old properties, refurbishing them and selling them. It's nice to have something to fall back on. You?" She had kind of talked rather fast, hoping that if she talked fast then surely the flight would take longer. Nope…. Still on the ground.

"Well, I uhm…" she could see he was struggling.

"Well…. I know you got married…" she figured she'd break the ice.

"Yeah… and divorced. I partnered with a friend and started Calahart, had some more surgeries, won a few more Wrestlemania's… I did start some training facilities in Texas." Stacie smiled, that had always been a dream of his.

"Good. I'm happy for you." And she genuinely smiled at him, which he in turn smiled back – and in that smile she felt herself having to battle off all those old feelings again. This man was going to be the death of her.

_____________________________

Mark watched as she walked around this old building for the fourth time this week, but she was so enamored by it. It was Friday, they had been here since Monday, and she had been studying up on the building and finally had found old pictures of the interior of the building and now she had dragged him back here to take notes – all of which he had to sign off on. Normally he would complain about this sort of thing, but it had been so long since he had seen her this happy, she was like a kid in a toy store and this made him excited about the building and the renovations.

_This is something Michelle would never get into,_ he suddenly thought to himself. He almost felt bad for thinking it, but knew his sub conscious was right. He and Michelle had been on the phone almost every night, and no matter how excited he was about everything going on she was just like a wet towel being thrown over a hot fire. It damn near drove him wild. He fished for his phone out of his pocket and switched it off and then called out to Stacie.

"We need to celebrate!" His voice echoed across the room, and he could see it made her jump; but soon he saw that dazzling smile cross her lips. At least this venture had brought them closer together, he found himself joking with her, laughing with her, and talking to her like they used to.

"We sure do! What do you have in mind?" He watched as she closed her notebook, her tiny body seemingly made to midget like status because of the size of the empty room.

"Dinner. My place. I've got some fresh steaks, shrimp, stuff to make salad, wine, potoatos, squash, zuchhini; and I haven't even cooked in my kitchen yet. How about it?" He was really expecting her to say no, but instead she nodded, tagged his shoulder and started running.

"Race you to the car…" she called over her shoulder. Mark grinned, he felt the electricity from the two in the air and knew tonight was going to be a good night, he decided to let her win, even though he knew she knew he was letting her win. Mark pressed the door to the building open and was greeted by the sunlight and a view of Pike's Peak ahead of them. Colorado was nothing like Texas and, as much as he hated to admit it, he loved it here. The views were breathtaking and Colorado actually had a winter, but right now it was fall and it was gorgeous, but not just because of the fall colors. Mark watched Stacie's hair blowing in the wind as she ran to his rental car, she turned causing few strands to blow in her face framing her laughing eyes and smile just perfectly. She was wearing just a pair of jeans and a bright red sweater that clung to her curves. For a brief moment Mark felt like nothing had changed between them, that they were still together and he was the happiest he had ever been in his life. Ever.


	7. Here With Me

Naughty Scenes Ahead, if this isn't your thing, skip to the next chapter – well, actually, you might want to scroll down and read the last few paragraphs, or you might get confused.

_I didn't hear you leave… I wonder how am I still here.  
And I don't wanna move a thing, it might change my memory.  
Oh I am, what I am. I'll do what I want… but I can't hide.  
And I won't go.  
I won't sleep.  
I can't breathe… until you're resting here with me.  
I won't leave. And I can't hide.  
I cannot be… until you're resting here with me.  
I don't wanna call my friends, they might wake me from this dream.  
And I can't leave this bed… Risk forgetting all that's been  
Oh I am what I am. I'll do what I want.  
But I can't hide…  
I won't go. I won't sleep… And I can't breathe…_

Mark had been intoxicated since before he and Stacie began drinking wine, he had turned off his phone and blocked out the rest of the world and instead all his thoughts and attentions had been put directly on the woman sitting directly across from him on the couch. They had already had dinner, and had laughed and joked about old times and somehow was able to even throw in a few old inside jokes. Here and there his mind would dart back to Michelle, but he'd press those thoughts aside. It had been ten years too long since he had this sort of time with Stacie, and she seemed to be enjoying herself, especially after two and a half bottles of wine.

"I've had a really, really great evening Mark." Stacie said leaning back and stretching, her sweater coming just a few inches up above her jeans, her smooth flat tummy having shadows dace across it from the shadows being cast from the fire in the fireplace. Mark licked his lips and looked from her tummy to her face.

"What happened between us?" He finally blurted out.

"…Wh… what?" Mark watched her features change from contentmet to awkwardness.

"We had a great thing… what… happened?"

"Mark, this is not the time or the place… can't we just finish out the evening without much drama." Stacie shifted uncomfortable in her seat and crossed her arms over her chest, showing that she was uncomfortable. Mark could swear he almost saw her tear up.

"When is the time and place, Stacie? It's been years – you nor I can deny that we've been battling old feelings."

"Oh really?" Stacie snorted and shook her head and moved to get up, but Mark stood up and grabbed her arm causing her to jerk around and he forced her body to look at him.

"Yes, really."

"Please, Mark don't even go there." And then… something in Stacie must have snapped, because she let him have it… "Fine, Mark. I'm done playing formalities. Why didn't we work out? Because of your… your… whatever the hell it was, it killed us. This need to keep things so hush hush, to hide things, the hide me, to hide us. After we first broke up I thought it was sincerely personality differences. But no!" Stacie jerked her arm away from him so fast it startled him, and she ran her fingers through her hair, "Not even 4 months later you were married! FUCKING married! And just to add salt to my wound, you then paraded her and the marriage and this stupid story line that was nothing like the character you had built up for years! Something you said you could never do because of your character! So then I'm left wondering if I was ever worth it, after all those things you told me about love and marrying me and having a future… I could either believe that you were lying to me or lying to your wife. Obviously since she had something that I didn't, I figured you had lied to me. But what quiet possibly hurt the most, was not hearing anything from you. Know how I found out? A damn wrestling tabloid magazine…"

"Stacie… I…"

"I'm not finished." Mark snapped his jaw shut… "Now, after your divorce and after I've, what I thought moved on and was fine without you, I get to see you parade some hot new thing, half your age and totally not deserving of ANY of the title's she's held, so I can only assume you have had something to do with that – another thing that I know you're against; I get to watch all that bull shit unfold. AND no one even knows of our past and those that do, don't acknowledge it." Tears swelled up in Stacie's eyes as she moved behind one of his big leather chairs to give them some distance. "That kills me. You were my first love and I thought all those feelings had past, until I saw you, and then that night at the bar in Idaho where you kissed me. Everything came flooding back. Yeah, it's been ten years, but some days…."

"It feels like forever, other days it feels just like yesterday." Mark cut her off catching her gaze, forcing her to look at him. He guessed by the way she snapped her jaw shut, that's exactly what she was going to say.

"It seem everyone has moved on for me. It wasn't over for me… I don't think I've had closure. I haven't been able to date… I just can't. God… that sounds so pathetic."

"Do you think it was over for me?"

"MARK! You married a few months later!"

"I thought I had too!"

"You _thought_ you had too?! What the hell does that mean?"

"I thought she was pregnant… which she was… but it wasn't… mine." Mark knew he had just screwed up, when they found out Stacie was pregnant, Mark ran from marriage. Then here was a woman he had a fling with to try and get over Stacie with, and he marries her. Mark wasn't a man of tact or a thought process at times. Just then Stacie snorted against and went to move, but Mark mirrored her move to keep her from leaving.

"I need to go.."

"It's not over for me either."

"It has to be, Mark. Michelle is moving in to your home in Texas in a matter of days…"

"Screw it! All that matters to me right now is being here…" Mark moved closer to Stacie, but she moved to the other side of the chair leaving the chair still between them.. "in this moment…" Mark moved the other side, but Stacie rounded the other side of the chair, still leaving it between them. Now Mark had had enough.

"All that matters to me right now is you." Mark flung the chair from between them, closed in on the space between them, caught her waist in one arm and held her face with his free hand and pressed his lips firmly down on her hers. There went the electric shock through his body and he pushed her back to pin her against the wall again, feeling a bit of relief when she finally returned the kiss. Mark groaned and moved the hand wrapped around her waist and pressed it against the wall to enable him to move in closer to Stacie. She tasted just as he remembered, as he ran his tongue across her lips and into her mouth, and then a small whimper escaped her throat and Mark moved back for a moment.

"What are we doing?" Stacie squeeked out in a whisper.

"I… don't know…" Mark noticed his voice was husky, and he didn't know, all he knew was that this felt so right to him. Mark brushed her nose with his and breathed her in. "If we need to stop, tell me now… or else I'm not going to be able too." He closed his eyes expecting her to say no, but instead felt her hands on either side of his face and felt her lips press against his again. Mark let go of all inhibitions and finally made the move he should have made 10 years ago.

_____________________

Stacie knew she should have left, but she couldn't bring herself to leave. She knew Mark had Michelle, she knew this would complicate things way past anything she ever wanted it. But for a brief moment in letting her guard down, she hoped maybe this would heal any broken parts of her and Mark. She groaned as Mark bent down and brought her legs around his waist, she instinctively locked her legs around his waist and felt her back leave the wall. Mark continued kissing her, and moved from her lips down her neck, hitting every spot he knew could make her shudder. He started just below the ear and moved down to her shoulder, letting his goatee tickle her skin.

She returned the favor by nibbling him on his ear and felt herself grinning when she heard that familiar growl in his throat. He quickly whirled her around and pinned against the hall way wall, his hands tugging at her shirt, lifting it above her head and tossing it the floor in a huddled mess. Mark trailed his kisses from her collar bone to her above her breast, running his tongue over the curves. She tilted her head back feeling her spine crawl with anticipation. She guessed when he was satisfied he picked her up again and made his way up the stairs, she made sure to nibble on his ear some more and kiss just below his ear.

"Darlin,' if you don't stop that, I'm not going to make it to the bedroom…" Stacie just grinned and ran her tongue along the curve of his neck, taking in his scent and tasting the salt of his skin, feeling him grip her tighter as she did so. Finally she felt herself being pressed into a bed and she leaned up on her elbows to watch Mark take off his shirt and take his hair from the pony tail, the darker locks spilling over his shoulders. Her eyes graced his muscular body and noticed he had the tiny patch of hair on his chest taken off; the tattoos were all the same, and took up both arms and the BSK tattoo across his chest. Then their eyes locked, and she saw the fire that burned his eyes before he moved down on top of her, his hands sliding her bra straps down past her breast. She knew she'd probably regret this in the morning, but at this point she didn't care.

____-

Mark couldn't believe that this was actually happening, he thought as he moved his kisses from her neck down to her breast, his tongue wasting no time to encircle the perky nipple. He felt her back arch and her smooth skin press against his belly, and as she arched a bit more he felt her heat press against his hardness, and he lost it. He rocked back to his knees and unbuttoned her jeans, hastily sliding them down her legs along with her underwear. He moved his lips back to hers, their tongues dancing wildly back and forth as his hand moved up her inner thigh, he could feel the goosebumps on her skin. He moaned in her kiss and tore away to kiss her neck again, as he slid two fingers into her, feeling her heat. Her heard her suck in a breath and felt her nails dig into his back.

"Darlin…" Mark looked into her face and could see it flooded with desire, he pressed his lips against her once more and moved to take off his jeans and then steadied himself between her. He hadn't meant for this part to come as quickly as it did, but he felt such a need to feel close to her again. Mark readied himself between her legs and gently caught her lips with hers before sliding himself into her. Stacie's arm wrapped around his neck and held him close as she let out a whimper. Mark had to keep his body in check, she was tight and he knew if he didn't watch it, this moment wouldn't last for more than a few seconds. He stilled his movements, allowing her body to adjust to him before he slowly started moving in and out of her.

"Mark…" she gasped burying her face in his neck, he knew she was close so he moved his rhythm faster and harder. When he moans became a scream he knew he had her, and pulled out before he reached his climax. They both laid there for a moment, panting, neither saying anything. Finally Mark rolled to his side and looked at her, and the reality of what they had just done settled in.

"Now what?" She finally whispered into the darkness of the room, her eyes glued to the ceiling.

"I don't know. This definitely…"

"Changes things." Stacie sat up and slid on her underwear and jeans and left the room, Mark rubbed his temples with his fingers, knowing that this was quiet possibly the worst decision ever. He got up and slid on his boxers and took off down the hallway to find her sliding on her sweater.

"Can't you just stay the night and we can talk about this in the morning?" Stacie shook her head and continued down the hallway back out into the living room.

"And then what…? Mark… things are different now. You have someone and I'm your superior. If you thought things were rough when we did date, you have no idea how bad it could get with you being with Michelle… and then things with us…this was just a bad idea."

"Do you regret it?"

"Right now? No. But after a few hours… you know we both will…." Stacie gathered her pocket book and gave him one last lingering look, "You go on out to Texas, go be with Michelle, I'll finish up my work here and head back to work on the road with the crew. This… never happened." Before Mark could protest she was out his door and on the phone with a taxi compay. Mark picked up the chair he flung and set it back in its rightful place and couldn't shake this feeling that when Stacie walked out that door, she had walked out for good… again. Mark felt his chest tighten and the air escape his lungs as he realized that he and Stacie were really done.

(or are they? dun dun dunn.... working on the next chapter now! and thanks for the reviews!!!! They mean uber lots!)


	8. Diamond Dogs Are Vultures

_Diamond Dogs are vultures  
And they hide behind trees…_

Michelle had been moving her things in and was re-arranging Mark's closet when she stumbled across an old wooden box buried beneath some of his clothes. Curiosity got the better of her and she opened it, smiling at its contents. There were pictures of Mark and Stacie… but they were old, Michelle flipped some of the pictures over to see the time stamp and noticed these were over 10 years old. As she flipped through the pictures it first looked like it was when Stacie was on the road traveling as stage crew. There were pictures of her and Mark and some of the other guys, some long gone. Steve Austin, Owen Hart, Yokozuna… at first Michelle thought these were just pictures of past travels until the pictures changed from on the road to a Christmas holiday. There was Mark and Stacie in front of a Christmas tree… and then kissing under mistletoe… Michelle felt her stomach get queezy as she continued to flip. There were pictures from vacations, holidays, date nights.

"Well holy shit… Mark and Stacie used to have a thing for each other." She mumbled under her breath, and felt fear gripping at her heart when the fact that Mark and Stacie were out in Colorado together. Michelle shot up and grabbed her phone calling Mark's cell phone, but it was off. That was the first time this week it had been off. She felt herself starting to get sick and she called information for the hotel she knew Stacie was staying in. Finally after waiting for what felt like an eternity the operator of the hotel put her through to Stacie's room.

"Hello?" Stacie's voice beamed through the phone, she sounded tired.

"Hey Stace! This is Michelle!"

"Hey Michelle…. Is everything okay?"

"Oh, yeah. I'm just trying to move some stuff in and wanted Mark's permission to move something," Michelle lied, "Is he around you or near you or anything?"

"No ma'am. I haven't seen him since dinner." Michelle sighed a sigh of relief, Stacie was acting too calm and she was by herself – perhaps Stacie and Mark hadn't done anything.

"Okay… well if you see him, will you let him know I called?"

"You'll probably see him before I do. I think he's flying on out there tomorrow, I don't need him here anymore so I suggested he head on out to see you." Michelle felt her stomach drop but played it off.

"Really?! Aw, thanks Stace!"

"No problem…. Anyway, I'm going to go. It's been a long day…"

"Yeah… sure. Night!" Michelle flipped her cell phone closed and looked at the pictures in her hand. Her mind was already plotting… maybe Stacie and Mark hadn't done anything yet, but she didn't want to take any risks. She was too close to becoming Mrs. Calaway, she didn't want to risk loosing that to Stacie.

_____________________________________________

Mark returned from his brief vacation back home with Michelle in hand – but he was in a foul, foul, foul mood. Hey stayed up late thinking about her and was left alone with his thoughts on the account of Michelle; all he wanted was to at least talk to Stacie, but she was avoiding him like the the goddamn swine flu. She wouldn't answer her phone, she had blocked his e-mail and her family, conveniently, never knew where she was. No doubt Stacie had told them to keep him away from her. And now here he was at the arena and who is the first person he sees? Stacie, sitting in hair and makeup reading over something. Mark growled and moved past her, dragging Michelle along with him, but just as he did he caught a whiff of Stacie's perfume and felt himself screaming on the inside.

He rounded the corner and dropped off Michelle at the ladie's locker room watching as the other Diva's lowered their voices around him and Michelle. It was no secret that none of the Diva's particularly cared for Michelle, nor her relationship with him; and he guessed maybe they were within their right. Mark hated feeling pressured to push for Michelle to Vince, but she would always use her damned eating disorder to corner him into it.

"What has my life come too?" Mark muttered under his breath and made his way to his locker room.

_______________________________________________

Stacie watched from the Gorilla position, a bunch of TV's with a head set on, she was controlling what camera angle was shown and when and calling the shots while her dad was attending to business elsewhere in the coliseum. This was Mark's match – and boy did she feel uncomfortable. He was obviously harboring some frustrations, she could see it in his face. Just then, she felt someone behind her so she glanced over her shoulder, it was Michelle.

"He's mighty fine isn't he?" Michelle chimed behind her. Stacie couldn't help but feel like something was off with that statement, almost like Michelle was fishing for something, so instead she just chose to ignore her and continue talking to the camera crew.

"You know… I think he's gonna propose soon… he's been distant… had his mind pre-occupied with something. We're going down to see my parents in a few days. It's only a matter time… I couldn't be more happy." Stacie felt her skin crawl, knowing that Michelle was completely playing Mark for power, but instead she took off her head set and smiled over to Michelle.

"I'm sorry doll, were you saying something? I can't hear much over all the shouting that's over these," she held up the head set as her brother came over to take her spot. _Kill her with kindness,_ Stacie thought to herself.

"Oh… um… yeah… I was just saying that, I think Mark's…."

"Michelle. Let's go." Mark came bursting through the backstage curtain, giving Stacie a go to hell look and dragging Michelle behind him. Stacie rolled her eyes and moved over to behind the curtain. It was time to address the audience… her music cued and she strolled down to the stage. She couldn't help but smile, the adrenaline from this was certainly addicting. She stepped through the ropes and started her shpeel…

"As many of you know, I was brutally attacked a few weeks ago on Raw by Mr. Randy Orton…" she stuck to her script, Randy came out and apologized, her dad on cue for his interruption, and she sorted it out by announcing a match between the two of them, and whoever won would have her in their corner at Breaking Point. Within a few moments Stacie found herself backstage, a few of the stage hands handing her different things she needed to sign off on before they could start shutting down certain stages. And then a stage hand handed her a manilla envelope.

"Hmm…" she flipped the envelope over looking for a name, but found none. She opened it as she made her way back to her room and her stomach churned at its contents, there was a blown up picture of her and Mark kissing, it was from her birthday years ago; and attached to the photo was a letter that simply read:

He who controls the past.

Controls the future.

Mind your p's and q's , if you care for him at all.

Surely this wasn't a sick joke from Mark, he's not that kind. To her knowledge Michelle didn't know, this had to be someone from the past trying to use her and Mark's past to weasel their way to something. Power? A title shot? Who knew… Stacie opened her brief case and slid the picture and paper in with some books and decided she wouldn't acknowledge it. So far she didn't feel threatened and wasn't sure where this could lead.

"Hey sis!" Stacie jumped at Paul coming up behind her, "Whoa, you okay? You're never, and I mean never jumpy."

"Yeah. Fine. Just nerves… I guess…"

"Well, I know how to calm those nerves," Paul had that little boy grin on his face and moved to the side, which allowed Stacie to view the doorway to her room, and there stood Steve Austin. Stacie smiled from ear to ear and ran to Steve and embraced him in a hug.

"Oh my God!!" Stacie laughed as Steve caught her in his arms.

"Hey there lil girl!"

Steve and the McMahon's went way back, and that was a story that didn't need a re-telling of what went on in front of the camera's, but behind the scenes Steve and Stacie hit it off quiet well. It wasn't a secret that they were good friends, so close Mark got jealous a time or two. But that was neither here nor there, Steve was here and it was perfect timing. She needed a few good drinks and a few great laughs.

"Yeah, I figured you needed some cheering up, since Colorado you've been dismal and it's driving everyone crazy." Paul quipped in as Stephanie came in and greeted Steve.

"Well, thank you. I think this is just what I needed." Stacie smiled, hugging Steve again. "How long are you here?"

"Oh… a few months."

"What?"

"He's here to help play up the Legacy story line," Stephanie laughed, "He needed the work, I worked him in."

Stacie was ecstatic to have Steve there, especially for the next few months, it would help take her mind of things with Mark and possibly deal with Mark proposing. Steve always knew how to make her laugh and together they were actually quiet the pranksters. They also were shoulders for each other to lean on; she's not quiet sure how it happened, it just did. When she was younger and traveling on the road Steve had taken her under his wing just to protect her and from there a friendship blossomed – but they were never anything more, and there was never the desire for there to be anything more. When Steve had the abuse incident a few years back, Stacie was on a flight out to Texas to sit with him and then hauled him back to Vermont to get him into rehab for his steroid use and back on the right track. They two definitely had a bond.

"So lil lady, I was wondering if you wouldn't mind being my date tonight." Steve said as they exited her office, other wrestlers were already lined up to meet him, he shook hands and said his hellos before turning back to Stacie. "How about it?"

"You know I'd be honored, it's been a while since…" and then Mark walked up with Michelle in tow, Stacie swore that girl always seemed to have a stick up her ass.

"Steve! What the hell are you doing here?" Mark asked, smiling hugging Steve. Mark also had a friendship with Steve, but Steve had let Mark know exactly what he thought of him after Stacie and he broke up.

"Eh, here to help with the story line a little bit, I miss being on the road."

"Excellent! It'll be just like old times…" Mark's voice faded and each held a sort of awkward silence remembering it won't be like old times.

"You and Michelle going out tonight?" Steve finally broke the silence and moved his arm around Stacie's waist. Stacie smiled inwardly, Steve just chose sides.

"Yeah, I think we're all meeting up at this club a few miles out." Mark looked at Steve's arm and held his gaze there for a moment before looking at Stacie. At first she felt horrible, and then she remembered all the crap Mark had put her through, and that horrible feeling quickly retreated.

"See you there then, buddy." Steve smiled at Mark and shook his hand with his free hand and pulled Stacie away. "So your family told me about how things were going with you and Mark, I also decided that I had to come rescue you. We all know how Mark can be." Steve said as he helped her into his car.

"Yeah… he's been one smug bastard." Stacie muttered as Steve shut the door. Stacie sucked in a breath as Steve slid into the seat next to her and gave her a smile. "Oh Steve… there's so much more I need to tell you about Mark."

______________________________________________________

Mark tuned Michelle out as they drove to the club, he knew Steve had always had a thing for Stacie, but had never acted on it for the sake of him and Stacie; but now things were different. They had 10 years between their break up, he had Michelle and Steve was fully aware of this. There was no doubt in Mark's mind that Steve would act on it now – and this bothered Mark. And now it bothered him that he was bothered. Mark gripped the steering wheel tighter and noticed that Michelle was looking at him.

"Babe, are you alright? You sure seem distant."

"Yeah, head ache I guess…"

Michelle rubbed inside his thigh and leaned over and started to nibble on his ear, Mark tried with all his might to not think about Stacie and him a few weeks ago in Colorado.

"We could always just go back to the room…"

"Nah, let's party a little… we'll turn in early." Mark offered a smile to Michelle, and for a second he saw something flash in her face, he wasn't sure what, but it was something he hadn't seen before. He shook it off and parked the car and retreated back to his thoughts of Stacie..

_December 1998_

Mark paced impatiently back and forth in front of their bathroom door waiting for Stacie to come out. Finally she emerged with the stick and sat it on their dresser and took a seat on the edge of the bed watching her wrist watch.

"How long do we have to wait?"

"Well, it could be up to five minutes…"

"That's forever." Mark whined, but all Stacie did was smile, she knew she was pregnant, but Mark wanted a test to prove it. Mark sighed and loomed over the pregnancy stick and looked down at it, seeing two lines.

"What does two lines mean?" He asked picking up the stuck looking down at it.

"It means the obvious dummy."

"You're… we're… really?" Stacie smiled at him and sat back on her hands with that all knowing look of hers. They hadn't been trying, but when Stacie had come to him a few weeks ago thinking she was pregnant Mark was elated. Sure it was a little early and ideally he would have liked to wait to have kids, but knowing that inside Stacie was a little one that both he and she had created made him feel in a way he had never felt before. He grinned at her and picked her up in his arms, twirling her about in his arms.

"My baby's having a baby…" he whispered into her ear and buried his face in her neck, tears of joy coming to his eyes

Mark came back to his senses, not sure why that memory had come to mind, maybe it's because he knew he was getting older and still didn't have child of his own, or maybe his heart hadn't fully let Stacie behind him.

_________________________________________________________

"You've just got to let him go!" Steve shouted above the music, handing Stacie her drink. They had chosen a booth in the corner and Steve slid in beside her. Steve had generously been quiet and let her vent about everything that had transpired between her and Mark since she had arrived back on the road.

"I know, I thought I had." Stacie's eyes drifted beyond Steve and saw Mark and Michelle walk in causing Steve to look behind him. He turned back and looked at Stacie and shook his head and grabbed her arm.

"We're dancing." Stacie sighed but couldn't help but smile, Steve was just trying to help her, but she wasn't sure if she could ever truly ever get over Mark Calaway. Steve and her danced a few numbers, most of the time she could feel Mark's gaze on her, but she kept her eyes on Steven and before long she had almost forgotten that Mark was there. Steve was being the perfect gentleman, during a few of the slower songs he complimented her from anywhere to her outfit, to her hair to the way she smelt; and she couldn't lie to herself, it felt nice to feel complimented again.

"It's good to see you smile Stace," Steve said as he led her back to their booth.

"It's good to smile, it's just been way harder than I evert expected, you know?"

"Yeah, I know… but trust me, you'll get through this. I'll make sure of it." Steve smiled over at her and held her eyes with his for a few moments. "What are you doing tomorrow?"

"Driving, I rented a Jeep Rubicon and since I don't have to be at the next few house shows, I'm going to take a little road trip to the next location for Raw."

"Want some company?"

"Would I ever. It's dangerous when I'm left to my thoughts."

"Yeah, we don't need you slumping back down again do we. That pretty little face of yours deserves some happiness." Stacie smiled at Steve and was almost certain that with his help, she could most definitely get over Mark.

(ha ha ha, I know I'm teasing you guys. Hmm.. who has the happy ending? Mark? or Stacie? hmm hmmmm hmmmmmmmm and thanks for the reviews! I'm going to try to have the next chapter up today!)


	9. When You Walk Away

**Sexual Content This Chapter, later on actually, I'll give you a warning right before hand if this isn't your thing.**

_When you walk away, I count the steps that you take.  
Do you see how much I need you right now?  
When you're gone, the pieces of my heart are missing you.  
When you're gone, the face I came to know is missing too.  
When you're gone the words I need to hear to always get me through the day_

_And make it okay…  
I miss you….._

Mark sat in his hotel room aimlessly watching ESPN, Stacie and Steve had been gone for only two days but to Mark it felt pretty much like two months. He wasn't sure why it bothered him so much that Stacie and Steve took off – he had watched her most of the night the other night at the club, and she seemed to loosen up around Steve and smile a lot more. That bothered him. It also bothered him that he just had this gut feeling like Steve was going to try to go after Stacie. He rolled over and was thankful he didn't have Michelle in the bed with him, she was back in Texas to tie up a few loose ends, but was due back tomorrow night – luckily, at least for now, he now had some peace and quiet to figure out what the hell he was going to do. His thoughts were interrupted when he heard a knock on his door. He stretched getting up and walked over and flung it open to see Glenn standing there with that goofy ass grin he normally wore.

"Going out tonight?"

"No." Mark's voice was dull and lethargic and it caused that goofy ass grin to change into the concerned, perplexed look.

"What's wrong?"  
"My life." Mark sighed and sat back down on his bed.

"That's a bit of a loaded statement there, Mark."

"Did you ever wake up one day and realize that your life is nothing like you thought it was going to be? And it's not better than what you imagined, and you think that this is possibly what hell is like?"

"Your life is troubling then. What gives?" Glenn pulled a chair to sit across from Mark, Mark closed his eyes and finally made the confession.

"I don't think I'm over Stacie."

"Stacie?! Your ex?"

"Yeah, the only Stacie I know."

"Why? I mean… it's been…. Years…."

"I know that – but, well… these feelings, I can't shake them. It's more than just forlorn loss. This is, I can't sleep and barely function because I know how much I miss her."

"Have you told Michelle?"

"No, and this is where it gets sticky. I fear that if I tell Michelle she'll go off the deep end, you know with her eating disorder and everything. And what's worse is I got this letter delivered to me the other day with an old picture of me and Stacie from a few years back and it said that if I loved Michelle, I'd stay away from Stacie or else who ever knows about our past will tell Michelle. That could kill Michelle."

"Well, what are you going to do?"

"I don't know. I mean… I love Michelle I guess…"

"No, I think you feel responsible for Michelle."

"It could be that…." Mark swallowed hard, in reality all he wanted to do was end things with Michelle and pursue Stacie, but he just knew that could possibly kill Michelle.

"What are you going to do?"

"I have no fucking idea…"

__________________________________________________________

Michelle smiled as she sat at her and Mark's home, she knew she had nothing to worry about. Since Mark had found that threatening letter warning to stay away from Stacie, lest poor innocent Michelle found out. She chuckled to herself, quiet pleased with how everything was turning in her favor. She knew Mark wasn't going anywhere… now all she had to do was her last part of her plan. She would announce she was pregnant, and she just knew Mark – being old fashioned would have to marry her. Besides, a baby is what he wanted most of all. They would shot gun a wedding and then she would "loose" the baby and over her distraught poor self, Mark would do anything to make her happy. Anything. Including push her for more power in the WWE. And with Stacie out of the way, there was nothing holding her back

It was perfect....

_______________________________________________________

Stacie woke up and felt Steve's arm around her, they hadn't done anything physical, in fact Steve had been the perfect gentlemen the entire trip and every night up until tonight they had slept in separate rooms. But this hotel had gotten their reservations mixed up and gave her a suite with one bed. The couch was too small for both of them, she was pretty sure it wasn't even a couch, it was more like an over sized chair. So they both decided to just suck it up and sleep in the same bed, and Stacie didn't worry about it at all. In fact, this felt rather nice, but she could still feel her heart lingering for Mark. She sighed heavily and closed her eyes remembering how it felt when she woke up beside Mark. She felt safe, too bad the only thing that really wounded her was the one thing Mark couldn't save her from, he had to save her from himself.

"You're thinking about him again, aren't you?" Steve whispered into the silence.

"How can you tell?"

"That sigh was a heavy one, lil girl." Steve squeezed Stacie tighter.

"I never thought it would be this hard…"

"Have you ever thought that maybe your heart isn't letting go because he's supposed to be there?"

"It has, but that's impossible Steve."

"Why is it impossible? Because that stick they call the women's champ has his balls in her fridge?"

"If Mark's happy…"

"He's not happy Stacie… I've seen Mark happy, he's not happy."

"Well he's not making any moves to end things." Steve fell quiet, regardless if he was happy or not once Mark's mind was made up, it was made up. There was no changing it, and if Stacie knew how to change it she would.

"Ever notice he never called Sara or Michelle, darlin'?" Steve finally quipped, rolling onto his back and staring up at the ceiling.

"No…" Darlin' had been something he had called her, and since Steve had brought it up, she was glad he didn't call them darlin'. That was **her** name.

"Mark's a fool to let you go again…"

"Love is blind…" Steve rocked back onto his side and pulled Stacie to where she was facing him. At first she thought he was going to say something but instead lightly brushed her lips with his. It was nothing passionate or sexual, just a quick kiss.

"Stacie, I'm gonna tell you something in strict confidence… I've always liked you. As a friend, yes, but always as something more too. And I want to see you happy, you deserve that. You've lost so much because of Mark and anyone who was around then knows that you two are meant for each other. It's like God himself made Mark and then had to make you just so Mark could have somebody that understood him, understood this business, and could counter his roughness. That kiss, did you feel anything?" Stacie didn't want to lie, but she didn't want to hurt his feelings, so instead she remained silent. "I know you didn't feel anything. Your lips aren't made for mine. And his lips aren't made for hers. You are made for each other…"

"What are you saying, Steve?"

"I'm saying, when we get back to the arena you go up to his dumb ass and tell him. You'll regret it if you don't." Stacie felt fear take hold of her body, but in her heart, she knew Steve was right. Then and there she started to rehearse what she was going to say to Mark and hopes and prayed to God she could muster the strength to say it.

______________________________________________________

**SEX!!!! (Warning given)**

Mark collapsed back down onto his bed the events of the night unfolding. He had wrestled and stalked backstage and ran into Stacie. She looked amazing, she had on a pencil skirt and a red blouse, her hair had been curled and part of it pinned back with a black rose. He held his breath as she walked by him, both of them casting lingering looks at each other. He felt his heart yearn for her touch and wanted to go after her and ask her out to dinner, but he knew that was a bad idea. He sighed and grabbed a few of the extra pillows off the bed and threw them at the wall in a huff. If only he hadn't ever gotten involved with Michelle… then he heard a soft knock at his door; thinking it was Glenn again, he got up and threw it open and the scowl on his face softened when he saw it Stacie.

"Hey…" she barely got out.

"Hi…"

"Can I come in?" Mark stepped aside and closed his eyes and re-opened them to make sure she was really there.

"Is everything okay, Stace?"

"Why don't you call her darlin'?" Stacie turned and faced him, he could now see the tears in her eyes. Darlin' was Stacie's name – and he couldn't bear to call anyone but Stacie that name. "You see, I had this whole speech planned out in my head, and I think it sounded pretty good, but the minute I knocked on your door it left me… and all I could think about was what Steve said, when he pointed out that you don't call her darlin'… Mark… I…"

"It's your name. Ever since the day I met you, it was yours. No one can take its place." Mark's eyes watched as she came over to him and placed both hands on his chest, her head only came to his pecs, and she was in heels. She then stood on tip toe and brushed her lips against his. Mark jolted from the touch but eagerly returned the kiss. He wasn't sure what they were doing, but all he knew is that this felt right, he snaked his hand around the back of her neck and deepened the kiss.

"Mark… I'm not over you…" She murmered against his lips. Mark broke the kiss and looked down into her eyes, seeing every ounce of pain and confliction in her eyes. He knew she was torn because of Michelle, he knew she was taking a risk. But he didn't care, he loved her… he loved her… it was then something clicked in his brain…

"I love you." He finally got out and covered her lips with his again. He felt the tension in her body relax and he kissed her deeper, probing her mouth with his tongue, feeling like he as going to loose it when she moaned and pressed her body against his harder, causing him to stumble back against the door. He nipped at her lips and she bit back just as rough, taking his lower lip in hers and gently sucking on it. Mark took a few steps forward, starting to unbutton her blouse as he did so, trailing kisses down her neck as he removed the blouse and tossed it aside before pressing her down on the bed.

"Are you sure about this?" Mark asked in a low growl, kissing her neck, his hand running up her stomach and cupping her breast.

"I've never been more sure of anything," she whispered in his ear before taking in a lobe and gently sucking on it. Mark growled and reached behind her unclasping her bra and throwing it aside and started trailing kisses, nips and licks down to her breast, encircling her nipple with his tongue. Stacie arched her back so Mark slowed his motions and moved back up to her lips, giving her a rough kiss, feeling the smoothness of her skin under his hands.

"Mmm… darlin'" It felt like a homecoming for Mark, this felt right. He rocked back onto his knees and removed his shirt, taking her in with his eyes. She propped up on her arms, obviously feeling comfortable under his eye. Her grinned a devilsh grin and started to unbutton the buttons on her skirt, slowly sliding it down her legs leaving her in just her lacy boy shorts. Mark inwardly groaned, as she sat up and kissed just under his chin, her hands lightly brushing his stomach before settling on the buttons of his jeans. Her kisses moved further down his neck as she unbuttoned his jeans and slid them down. Mark maneuvered himself and slid the rest of the way out of his jeans and laid her back down, planting hot kisses down to her belly button, his hands sneaking underneath her underwear and pulling them down, and slid two fingers inside of her. Stacie moaned and arched her back edging Mark closer to loosing it, he always had loved the fact that Stacie was a vocal one in bed.

He slowly moved his fingers in and out, his thumb gently stroking her clit, her moans becoming a little more audible causing Mark to lift up and crash his lips down to her, continuing to tease her with his hands, moving his fingers in and out more rhythmically, her hips rising to meet each thrust. Mark couldn't take it anymore, he moved himself in between her legs and roughly parted them with his own, his hands sliding up her body to pin her hands on either side of her head and slowly slid into her womb. Mark growled in his throat feeling how tight she was around him and the feel of her breast as she arched her back. He slid out and dove into her again with a little bit more force, a moan escaping her lips, a moan much louder than the last one. Mark covered her lips with his to keep the sound down, they were around other wrestlers and he didn't need anyone calling Michelle until he had time to talk to her. _To tell her that they were over…_ Mark was elated at the thought, and thrust harder into Stacie, knowing that she as his again.

**END SEX (There… continue reading without the smut. :-P)**

**________________________________________________________________  
**

Stacie woke up on Mark's chest, his arms encircled around her tightly, she turned her head and breathed in his scent, feeling completely safe and at home again. She tried to move to get up but his arms were held fast around her.

"And where do you think you're going?" Mark asked, his eyes still closed but a grin playing on his features.

"Mmm… no where, just trying to get comfy," Stacie sighed turning to look at him, allowing herself to get lost in his green eyes.

"Well I'm comfy…" Mark tightened his grip on her, "I let you go once, like hell I'm doing it again."

"So what are we going to do? I mean… obviously… there's still… and we're around… how am I going to…"

"As far as I'm concerned, Michelle and I are over; I still need to talk to her though, but that will be as good as done by this afternoon when I see her. Now as far as getting you out of here without anyone knowing… call your travel agent, claim sickness and rebook yourself on another flight. I'll leave with the rest of the crew can text you when everyone is on the buses and gone. You can leave, go back up to your room get your things and meet me at the next house show." Stacie smiled, Mark always was good at thinking things through and this was the first time she didn't mind him hiding her.

"That sounds like a plan…and Mark?"

"Hmm?"

"I love you… more than you'll ever know."

"Mmm… impossible. I do believe I love you more."

She and Mark laid in the bed for another forty five minutes until he, much to her protest, had to get up and head on out to head to the air port. She waited in his hotel room flipping through the channels on the t.v. thinking things through. This was almost too good to be true, and just knew at any point she would wake up and all this would be a dream, but upon pinching herself the reality of it began to sink in and she found herself grinning from ear to ear when Mark texted her, true to his word, that it was safe and she could back to her room. Stacie then flipped open her phone and called her travel agent, followed by her parents to let them know she was "under the weather." She couldn't wait to get back to Mark and finally start over with him.

____________________________________________

John Cena had seen Stacie go into Mark's room that night and sat down in the lobby for the next several hours waiting for her to come out; and when she didn't he quickly dialed Michelle's number.

"We've got a problem."

"What is it babe?"

"Stacie's been in Mark's room for the past 3 hours, and I don't think she's coming out anytime soon."

"Are you sure?"

"One hundred percent positive."

"Shit…" John sighed inwardly. Michelle and he had been seeing each other for the past 6 months secretly. Together they had devised a plan to get Mark to marry her, but they had to tweak it when evidence of Stacie and Mark came out. He had the idea to use Mark's secret past with Stacie as a hindrance of those two hooking back up, but neither of them heeded his warning.

"So now what?" Michelle quipped through in a panic.

"I'll threaten Stacie…"

"How?"

"You stick to your end with the pregnancy deal, but be hysterical about it. Not happy. You know… you never envisioned being an unwed mother, Mark's going to leave you now yadda yadda. And I'll deal with Stacie."

"You're not going to hurt her, are you?"

"NO! Of course not… I just know how to get under her skin.... if she cares for him as much as I think she does, she'll submit. She'll submit..."

____________________________________________________________

Mark had just walked into his hotel room and was checking his last text message from Stacie that said that her plane would be arriving in about 3 hours. That should give him enough time to talk to Michelle and gently end things with her – he felt somewhat bad about it, but there was no sense in dragging out a relationship with her if he knew it wasn't going anywhere, and quiet frankly he was going to be glad to get rid of her.

"Babe…?" Mark recognized Michelle's voice behind him, he turned to see her standing in the door way, hair in a pony tail and her face a hot crying mess.

"Michelle? What's wrong?" _So much for ending things in the next 3 hours… unless she found out about Stacie and I, and she came to end things with me._ Mark could only hope.

"You need to sit down…" Mark stepped back and sat down on the edge of the bed and watched as Michelle moved in front of him ands started pacing.

"I don't know how to tell you this, and I hope to God you don't get mad – I'm scared, I'm confused, I'm worried, I'm anxious – know that this wasn't planned, and it's a complete mistake. But.. well.. I'm pregnant…." Mark felt like his life went into slow motion as he sat there, dumb founded and looked at her, it completely not registering with what she just said.

"What…?"

"I'm pregnant…" A new on slaught of tears began to pour from Michelle's eyes, and she knelt down in front of him holding her face in his hands. Mark's mind finally started to catch up to speed and he realized what she was saying. As she repeated it one more time, it was like a hammer nailing the coffin shut on any chance now he had with Stacie. He quietly wrapped his arms around a sobbing Michelle and quietly cried for the death of him and Stacie.

_______________________________________________________________

Stacie rolled into the arena right on time and knew she had to play it cool, she wasn't sure if Mark had talked to Michelle yet or not – and even if he had it's not like they could prance around as a new couple. They would have to keep things on the down low for a while, which was fine with her. She was just glad to have Mark back.

"Stacie…" She jumped at her name being called and looked in the direction of her name being called, it was Mark, he was straddling his bike looking at her, his face looked red and puffy like he had been crying. She felt her heart stop for a moment.

"Mark…?"

"There's no easy way to say this, so I'm just going to say it. Michelle's pregnant… yes it's mine. I don't think I can leave her now. I don't know about a lot of things… but I do know it's not fair to drag you along into this and give you false hope… but I don't think we're going to work out." Stacie couldn't get anything out, not a word. She was completely paralyzed and in shock – she just stood there with a shocked look on her face.

"Can you at least say something…" Mark finally blurted out, the tears rolling fresh now.

"God… damn… you…." She finally sputtered out, feeling the tears coming to her eyes, and she moved back to the drivers side door, opened it, got in and sped off. She didn't even bother looking in the rear view mirror – she was never looking back again. As she left the arena, she didn't care if she did have obligations tonight, or if her parents were worried, or what the fans thought of her disappearing. She wanted to get as far away as possible from Mark Calaway, Michelle McCool, the WWE as possible. She fished out her phone and flipped it off, and drove through the afternoon and stopped sometime around 10 in the evening in Wilmington, NC. She parked the car in a parking area across from the beach and walked over to it, her emotions dense now, that spiraling feeling of loosing control was dwindling. She took a deep breath, letting the salty air assault her nostrils, the wind cooling her face where she had cried it raw. She wasn't sure why she stopped here, she had just driven for the hell of it. She tugged her phone out of her back pocket and flipped it on and noticed her mail box was full. At first she thought she should call her parents and then decided against it. She dialed Steve's number.

"Stacie! Goddammit woman! Where the hell are you?" She figured they'd be worried…

"Wilmington…"

"North Carolina?!?"

"Yeah… I needed a drive."

"Your parents are worried sick, so is Mark – hell everyone."

"I'm fine."

"You don't sound fine."

"Are you some place you can talk?"

"Hold on…" She could hear rustling in the back ground, a handful of people asking if she was fine and all Steve said was "Yes goddamit, now lemme talk to her…" followed by the door slamming.

"Okay… talk. What the hell happened to make you leave here like that?"

"Michelle's pregnant… Mark and I have no chance…. And I can't be there anymore…"

"Oh Jesus Stacie…. God, this is all my fault, I should have never told you to go to him…"

"You're not a psychic Steve…"

"No… it gets worse…"

"What?"

"Well… you got a package here, and thinking you had been kidnapped or something, your family opened it. Apparently someone is willing to go public, as in the press, with you and Mark – even up to most recently if you don't…."

"If I don't what?"

"Quit…"

"Fine."

"What?! Stacie! You can't just quit!"

"It sounds pretty damn promising right now Steve! I can't DO this anymore!! I just CAN'T. It will drive me fucking crazy!!! It just about has right now…" Stacie moved from the beach back to her car, flinging open her door and slamming it.

"Stacie, think this through…"

"NO. YOU think this through Steve – Michelle is pregnant with Mark's baby. YES that angers me, BUT Mark has always wanted kids. If… whoever this is… winds up going public Michelle could leave with the baby and that will kill Mark. I CANNOT be responsible for that!"

"Stacie, you don't even know who this person is! We could stop them!"

"No.. Steve… no… I'm done…."

"Let me fly out and at least be with you."

"Fine… I'm going back to Vermont, and don't breathe a word about this to anyone." Stacie flipped her phone shut and started the car again, she had a long drive to Vermont. She rolled down her window and tossed her phone out, all she wanted was peace and quiet on the way to Vermont. She needed to think....


	10. Take A Breath 2nd Upload

_I'll leave when the wind blows  
Take a breath and there it goes.  
I'll be outside of your window  
I'll pass by but I'll go slow  
I'll leave when the wind blows.  
There was a day when you threw our love away  
And you passed it to someone new  
You want to stay, but since you want to play  
I can finally say we're through…_

Shane, Steve and Stephanie patiently waited for Stacie to answer her door. They had given her a few days to calm down before coming out to see her, she hadn't been answering phone calls or e-mails. Steve had kind of filled them in on what had transpired and they were hoping by now they could talk her down out of her decision to quit the WWE. They had lawyers, they could fix this and Stacie could just work on Raw and never ever have to see Mark or Michelle. But what they were really dreading was telling her Mark had proposed to Michelle… and they were getting married in 2 months. Steve sighed and shifted anxiously from one foot to the other, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Stacie finally answered the door. Amazingly she looked cool, calm and collected.

"Hey guys." She gave them a sort of half smile and motioned for them to follow her. Shane and Stephanie exchanged awkward glances and moved into Stacie's entry way.

"Stacie… we're here because we're concerned…" Stephanie started off, but Stacie threw her hand up.

"I've made up my mind." Stacie walked over to her desk in the other room and came back out with an envelope and handed it to Shane.

"What's this?" Shane asked, but everyone already knew in their guts what it was.

"My resignation letter and the papers needed to split my part of the company between you and Stephanie."

"Now hold on a second…it's one thing to resign from your position…"

"No. I want to do this, I need to do this. I need to walk away from it all. I'm going to start my own Real Estate company and do what I really love. I'm going to go and do the things I've wanted to do, and I'm going to have some closure. Mark deserves peace and quiet, I deserve peace and quiet. Besides, there's no doubt in my mind that Mark is getting ready to or has already popped the question… and quiet frankly, I think I'd kill somebody if I had to hang around and hear all about it." Stacie flopped down into her big brown leather chair looking up at Steve, Stephanie and Shane. She could tell they were surprised, but they knew her well enough to know she meant business.

"Stacie… you're a McMahon… are you sure you want to give this up?" Steve asked moving in front of her and kneeling down to face her.

"Yes. I need to… you know this Steve." Steve sighed and took Stacie's hands in his, looking down and nodding.

"I know… I know… it just seems like such a tragic thing… to just, to have you gone."

"You do know that once you do this, there is no coming back?" Stephanie said coming up behind Steve looking down at her older sister. Stacie and Stephanie had always been close, Stephanie had looked up to Stacie and sought guidance from her when she took a roll in front of the camera. Stacie's absence would certainly be a gap in the WWE family.

"Well, we'll take your resignation, we're not taking your share of the company. That I won't allow." Shane piped in, he was sitting on her coffee table with his head in his hands.

Steve didn't have a good feeling about this, but he also knew if Stacie hung around for the sake of her family or expectations from everybody else, she might could never find some peace and happiness. May be later on she'd come back, but he knew there was no changing her mind right now – Mark had wounded her and wounded her deep.

_______________________________________________

Vince and Linda sat out in the limo in front of the Stacie's house waiting for someone to come out, Vince was so mad right now he could pop. He wasn't mad at Stacie, there was no doubt in Vince's mind that Stacie loved Mark. Stacie was never his irrational child, she was always the one that had a plan, stuck to it, followed it through. He was mad at Mark Calaway. He was mad at Michelle McCool. He was mad at whoever the bastard was toying with Mark and Stacie's past.

"Where the hell are they?" Vince asked in his calm but stern voice.

"Probably still trying to talk Stacie out of her decision."

"This isn't fair… Stacie has done nothing to warrant this. Why won't she fight it? And why wouldn't she want all this to come to light. It would at least teach Vince a lesson."

"Sweetheart… Stacie has loved Mark since the moment she met him and I assure you that right now she still does. For it to go public in such a malicious way is like trashing your most prized possession – she's doing what she has too to protect it."

"But I can fix this."

"No you can't Vince. The only two people who can fix this are Mark and Stacie, and I don't foresee that happening, unless some sort of miracle plops down in our laps." Vince and Linda quieted down as Shane and Stephanie made their way back to the limos. Shane slid in and rubbed a tear from his eye, followed by Stephanie

"She quit."

"Dammit…" Vince muttered and rubbed his temples.

"She wanted to give up her portion of the company but I wouldn't allow it; but I wouldn't be surprised if she moves to do that soon." Stephanie added, looking back up at Stacie's house.

"Where's Steve?" Linda asked.

"He's staying with her for a little while…" Shane answered looking back up at the house. Vince nodded to the cheuffer and they pulled off. He only hoped eventually Stacie might would come around, she could work in the offices soon, but he also understood that she needed this time to regroup. These past few months had been hell for her, according to Steve.

_______________________________________________________________

Mark and Michelle sat backstage in catering, and watched as she picked at her food, he had been forcing her to eat lately for the babies sake. He sighed and looked around wondering if and when Stacie was ever going to come back, but knew deep down she wasn't coming back. In a matter of few days his world turned upside down, Michelle had announced her pregnancy backstage which forced his hand at proposing to her; some days it made him physically nauseous thinking about where his life was heading. But he had a kid on the way, and that was enough for him. He could get through this knowing that.

"Hey Deadman… let's go for a walk." Mark looked up at Paul Levesque. He had stayed behind while the rest of the family flew out to meet with Stacie. Mark nodded and stood up, leaving Michelle sitting there by herself – he welcomed the break. Mark followed Paul outside and was blindsided when Paul turned and smacked him across the face.

"Sorry, I had to do that, you royally fucked her over." Paul growled at Mark and continued to drag him along with him. Mark understood where Paul was coming from, he needed to this, so he just followed and didn't bother retaliating. "Look, I'm going to make this quick and to the point. I just got off the phone with Steph. Stacie quit."

"Quit?"

"Quit. From everything. She's no longer employed with the WWE."

"Because of me?"

"In a round about way, apparently someone threatened her by coming forward to the press with yours and Stacie's past, if she didn't quit."

"So why didn't she fight it?"

"Because she knows you want a baby and she's fearful if that happens, Michelle will bolt with the baby." Mark grew quiet, Stacie's loved had always been about sacrifice.

"I guess asking where she is and if I can talk to her is out of the question."

"Yeah… don't even think about going near her. I'll kill you." Mark watched as Paul stalked off and turned and hit the door frame on his way back in. He could kill someone right now.

______________________________________________

Michelle watched as Mark walked off with Paul and couldn't help but smile to herself. She looked down at her left hand and felt the sense of triumph. There it was, the diamond ring that solidified the deal, she was going to be Mrs. Mark Calaway and would soon have her way, hopefully. Apparently the McMahon's were fiercly protective over Stacie and didn't like how things had transpired, she just had to get in their good graces and get Mark back in good standing. Give it a few days and things would smooth over – besides, who wants to torment a pregnant woman? Michelle chuckled to herself and threw the rest of her food away and got up to go find John.

____________________________________________

Steve and Stacie had gotten up for their morning run, he had been in Vermont for almost a month now and this had been their thing. They'd get up, go run, then grab breakfast at a local diner; he enjoyed this time and was immensely proud of Stacie for pulling herself together in such a short amount of time – she had already bought a few older houses in Connecticut and New York and had people already restoring them; she was doing pretty good for herself.

He was also quiet proud of her as these past few days there had been no mention of Mark at all from her lips. He could tell when she was thinking about him, but she had stopped mentioning him – which was good, maybe she was finally moving on.

"Steve we need to stop… I don't feel good…" Stacie slowed her running and put her hands on her knees.

"Overwork yourself?" he asked coming up behind her and placing a hand on her back, just as she started to throw up. "Breathe in baby girl, breathe in… deep breaths. You must have over worked yourself…" But Stacie continued to throw up, which had Steve worried that she had caught the flu or something. She as burning up, and not just from running, she was abnormally hot. Once her vomiting had ceased, Steve picked her up and carried her back to her house and got her on the couch.

"Flu?"

"Maybe… God this awful feeling just came over me. And I'm so tired all of a sudden…" Stacie said, pulling down the blanket off her couch and onto her.

"Have any flu medicine?"

"Yeah, in the upstairs bathroom medicine cabinet." Stave jogged up the stair bringing back the Theraflu, measuring it out and handing it to her, he chuckled at the face she made.

"Poor thing… you're getting sick. And right here before all the holidays."

"It's like clock work, I always get sick about this time."

"Well, I'll make some chicken soup… get a fire going… and guess park it here for a while till your family gets in."

"Steve.. they don't get in for another two weeks… go home…"

"Eh eh… I'm not leaving you here, sick and pathetic. What sort of friend would I be?" Steve laughed as he passed her moving into her kitchen to gather the things to make chicken soup, he'd make the kind his mother used to make, he swore it could cure cancer.

"Stacie! Where's your crock pot?!"

"Cabinet above the fridge!" Steve opened the cabinet and drug out the cabinet knocking down some old papers and dust as he did so. He bent down and picked them and realized they were letters from Mark, several years old from when they were dating. He picked up the first one, it had been scribbled on a small piece of paper from a hotel room. He remembered Mark writing her letters when they were dating, their schedules were so busy he wrote when he could on anything he could find.

_Stacie,_

_These past few weeks have been grueling and the nights seem to creep by. Steve and the boys have been ragging on me about counting down the days until I can see you again. I know this has been hard on both of us, but I know in the end it will be okay. I know we're meant for each other. It's just a matter of time, and things will get better. You're worth it though darlin. Everything that we're going through is preparing us for what we need to survive. I love you. Just a few more days._

_All My Love,  
Mark_

Steve sighed and put the letters back on top of the fridge and continued on making the chicken soup, his conscious heavy for Mark and Stacie. Everything seemed like all odds were stacked against them, but something just didn't seem right. Mark and Stacie seemed so right for each other, how could something like this go so far south so quickly? There were moments where he doubted Michelle's pregnancy whenever he talked to Mark, no morning sickness, no weight gain. But each pregnancy was different, and Michelle had battled anorexia, so he didn't say anything to Mark. Mark would also repeatedly ask him if he knew where Stacie was, if he talked to her – Steve hated lying to the guy, but he was protective of Stacie, so he'd just say no. Steve finished putting the ingredients in the crock pot and moved back into the living room and joined Stacie who was watching t.v. She smiled over at him and snuggled deeper under the covers. Steve decided then he would stay on through Thanksgiving and leave shortly after, and maybe drag her with him to Texas to bring in Christmas.

_________________________________________________________

Maria sat in the booth in a dark corner of the hotel's restaurant; everyone else had gone out for the evening but she just wasn't feeling it. All she wanted was some coffee and some dessert before turning in for the night. She sat back in the booth and smiled as she took the piping hot cup of coffee in her hands and was just about to take a sip when she heard people sit in the booth behind her – it was John and Michelle; she rolled her eyes and was about to get up and move to another booth, but their conversation stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Does he know you're here?"

"No, I slipped a Benadryl in his drink and it knocked him on out. He's sleeping, but I don't want to be gone too long."

"So how much longer do we have to keep this up?"

"I figure just a few more months. I at least need to get married to the man before I miscarry. We'll stay married a little while, I'll push for power, in turn push for you to have some more power and then when Mark's about ready to retire I'll leave him.. Knowing him, he'll continue to wrestle and become one of those old wrestlers that should have stopped a long time ago." Maria froze… was Michelle getting an abortion?

"How are you keeping the pregnancy visage up?"

"Photoshop is a beautiful thing, John." Maria froze, Michelle was totally playing Mark. She had to tell somebody… but who?

___________________________________________________

Paul was backstage with Stephanie going over their holiday schedule, they were all going to Vermont to be with Stacie for Thanksgiving. Last Steph had talked to Stacie she was doing fine, a little under the weather but she was supposed to be going to the doctor tomorrow to get some heavy duty medicine so she could be better in time for Thanksgiving. Everyone seemed to be moving on fine from the whole Mark fiasco, well, everyone but Mark, but no one really cared. He, no pun intended, had dug his own grave.

"PAUL! PAUL! PAUL! PAUL!" Maria came bolting through the door startling both he and Stephanie.

"What? Is everything okay?"

"NO!"

"What is it?"

"Michelle's not really pregnant!" Paul and Stephanie's faces turned to shock, and they just stood there and looked at Maria.

"What?"

"Michelle's not pregnant…" Maria started again, fidgeting as she did so. "Don't tell them I told you. You see, I was at the hotel last night having dessert and coffee when they came in and sat behind me, I guess they didn't see me."

"Wait… who's they?"

"John and Michelle… and Michelle told John that she was going to miscarry the baby, photoshop is a beautiful thing, and eventually she would divorce Mark and leave him dry." Maria got it all out in a huddled mess.

"You're sure?"

"Positive!"

Stephanie and Paul exchanged glances and Paul thanked Maria for the information and told her not to breathe a word to anyone about what was said.

"I think it's time for another drug test…" Stephanie said.

"What?"

"I'll screen for pregnany's too… wouldn't want any of our diva's possibly hurting their unborn without knowing."

"I like the way you think Steph."

___________________________________________

Stacie sat in her office staring at the doctor completely dumbfounded. She had come here for the flu. Not to be blindsided by this news. For a brief moment she's pretty sure the world stopped and she had to remind her self to breathe again.

"Ms. McMahon, are you okay?" Her doctor quipped.

"Yeah.. yeah… I'm fine… Just…"

"Shock is normal. Take some time to yourself and when you're ready to talk about options, call me at my office." Stacie nodded and got up, walking out to the waiting room where Steve was. She nodded for him to follow her outside and to her car, she didn't breathe a word till she got to the car, feeling the lump in her throat start to settle. Just when life starts turning around this shit happens….

"Stacie.. is everything okay?" Steve asked, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to look at him.

"No…" she got out, her voice high as she started to cry.

"Stacie… what is it? Are you going to be okay?"

"No…" She got out again.

"What… what is it?"

"…. I'm pregnant…" she got out in a whisper.


	11. Note From Author

Note From Author

So apparently, for whatever reason, hates my chapter 10; I've been piddling with it most of the day. I'm going to upload it again as a different chapter (so technically there will be two chapter 10's) to see if that helps.

If you could, comment when I post it as to whether you've been able to read it or not.

Thanks!

Xoxo

Meg


	12. Chapter 10 Part Deux

_I'll leave when the wind blows  
Take a breath and there it goes.  
I'll be outside of your window  
I'll pass by but I'll go slow  
I'll leave when the wind blows.  
There was a day when you threw our love away  
And you passed it to someone new  
You want to stay, but since you want to play  
I can finally say we're through…_

Shane, Steve and Stephanie patiently waited for Stacie to answer her door. They had given her a few days to calm down before coming out to see her, she hadn't been answering phone calls or e-mails. Steve had kind of filled them in on what had transpired and they were hoping by now they could talk her down out of her decision to quit the WWE. They had lawyers, they could fix this and Stacie could just work on Raw and never ever have to see Mark or Michelle. But what they were really dreading was telling her Mark had proposed to Michelle… and they were getting married in 2 months. Steve sighed and shifted anxiously from one foot to the other, and nearly jumped out of his skin when Stacie finally answered the door. Amazingly she looked cool, calm and collected.

"Hey guys." She gave them a sort of half smile and motioned for them to follow her. Shane and Stephanie exchanged awkward glances and moved into Stacie's entry way.

"Stacie… we're here because we're concerned…" Stephanie started off, but Stacie threw her hand up.

"I've made up my mind." Stacie walked over to her desk in the other room and came back out with an envelope and handed it to Shane.

"What's this?" Shane asked, but everyone already knew in their guts what it was.

"My resignation letter and the papers needed to split my part of the company between you and Stephanie."

"Now hold on a second…it's one thing to resign from your position…"

"No. I want to do this, I need to do this. I need to walk away from it all. I'm going to start my own Real Estate company and do what I really love. I'm going to go and do the things I've wanted to do, and I'm going to have some closure. Mark deserves peace and quiet, I deserve peace and quiet. Besides, there's no doubt in my mind that Mark is getting ready to or has already popped the question… and quiet frankly, I think I'd kill somebody if I had to hang around and hear all about it." Stacie flopped down into her big brown leather chair looking up at Steve, Stephanie and Shane. She could tell they were surprised, but they knew her well enough to know she meant business.

"Stacie… you're a McMahon… are you sure you want to give this up?" Steve asked moving in front of her and kneeling down to face her.

"Yes. I need to… you know this Steve." Steve sighed and took Stacie's hands in his, looking down and nodding.

"I know… I know… it just seems like such a tragic thing… to just, to have you gone."

"You do know that once you do this, there is no coming back?" Stephanie said coming up behind Steve looking down at her older sister. Stacie and Stephanie had always been close, Stephanie had looked up to Stacie and sought guidance from her when she took a roll in front of the camera. Stacie's absence would certainly be a gap in the WWE family.

"Well, we'll take your resignation, we're not taking your share of the company. That I won't allow." Shane piped in, he was sitting on her coffee table with his head in his hands.

Steve didn't have a good feeling about this, but he also knew if Stacie hung around for the sake of her family or expectations from everybody else, she might could never find some peace and happiness. May be later on she'd come back, but he knew there was no changing her mind right now – Mark had wounded her and wounded her deep.

____

Vince and Linda sat out in the limo in front of the Stacie's house waiting for someone to come out, Vince was so mad right now he could pop. He wasn't mad at Stacie, there was no doubt in Vince's mind that Stacie loved Mark. Stacie was never his irrational child, she was always the one that had a plan, stuck to it, followed it through. He was mad at Mark Calaway. He was mad at Michelle McCool. He was mad at whoever the bastard was toying with Mark and Stacie's past.

"Where the hell are they?" Vince asked in his calm but stern voice.

"Probably still trying to talk Stacie out of her decision."

"This isn't fair… Stacie has done nothing to warrant this. Why won't she fight it? And why wouldn't she want all this to come to light. It would at least teach Vince a lesson."

"Sweetheart… Stacie has loved Mark since the moment she met him and I assure you that right now she still does. For it to go public in such a malicious way is like trashing your most prized possession – she's doing what she has too to protect it."

"But I can fix this."

"No you can't Vince. The only two people who can fix this are Mark and Stacie, and I don't foresee that happening, unless some sort of miracle plops down in our laps." Vince and Linda quieted down as Shane and Stephanie made their way back to the limos. Shane slid in and rubbed a tear from his eye, followed by Stephanie

"She quit."

"Dammit…" Vince muttered and rubbed his temples.

"She wanted to give up her portion of the company but I wouldn't allow it; but I wouldn't be surprised if she moves to do that soon." Stephanie added, looking back up at Stacie's house.

"Where's Steve?" Linda asked.

"He's staying with her for a little while…" Shane answered looking back up at the house. Vince nodded to the cheuffer and they pulled off. He only hoped eventually Stacie might would come around, she could work in the offices soon, but he also understood that she needed this time to regroup. These past few months had been hell for her, according to Steve.

_____

Mark and Michelle sat backstage in catering, and watched as she picked at her food, he had been forcing her to eat lately for the babies sake. He sighed and looked around wondering if and when Stacie was ever going to come back, but knew deep down she wasn't coming back. In a matter of few days his world turned upside down, Michelle had announced her pregnancy backstage which forced his hand at proposing to her; some days it made him physically nauseous thinking about where his life was heading. But he had a kid on the way, and that was enough for him. He could get through this knowing that.

"Hey Deadman… let's go for a walk." Mark looked up at Paul Levesque. He had stayed behind while the rest of the family flew out to meet with Stacie. Mark nodded and stood up, leaving Michelle sitting there by herself – he welcomed the break. Mark followed Paul outside and was blindsided when Paul turned and smacked him across the face.

"Sorry, I had to do that, you royally fucked her over." Paul growled at Mark and continued to drag him along with him. Mark understood where Paul was coming from, he needed to this, so he just followed and didn't bother retaliating. "Look, I'm going to make this quick and to the point. I just got off the phone with Steph. Stacie quit."

"Quit?"

"Quit. From everything. She's no longer employed with the WWE."

"Because of me?"

"In a round about way, apparently someone threatened her by coming forward to the press with yours and Stacie's past, if she didn't quit."

"So why didn't she fight it?"

"Because she knows you want a baby and she's fearful if that happens, Michelle will bolt with the baby." Mark grew quiet, Stacie's loved had always been about sacrifice.

"I guess asking where she is and if I can talk to her is out of the question."

"Yeah… don't even think about going near her. I'll kill you." Mark watched as Paul stalked off and turned and hit the door frame on his way back in. He could kill someone right now.

____

Michelle watched as Mark walked off with Paul and couldn't help but smile to herself. She looked down at her left hand and felt the sense of triumph. There is was, the diamond ring that solidified the deal, she was going to be Mrs. Mark Calaway and would soon have her way, hopefully. Apparently the McMahon's were fiercly protective over Stacie and didn't like how things had transpired, she just had to get in their good graces and get Mark back in good standing. Give it a few days and things would smooth over – besides, who wants to torment a pregnant woman? Michelle chuckled to herself and threw the rest of her food away and got up to go find John.

____

Steve and Stacie had gotten up for their morning run, he had been in Vermont for almost a month now and this had been their thing. They'd get up, go run, then grab breakfast at a local diner; he enjoyed this time and was immensely proud of Stacie for pulling herself together in such a short amount of time – she had already bought a few older houses in Connecticut and New York and had people already restoring them; she was doing pretty good for herself.

He was also quiet proud of her as these past few days there had been no mention of Mark at all from her lips. He could tell when she was thinking about him, but she had stopped mentioning him – which was good, maybe she was finally moving on.

"Steve we need to stop… I don't feel good…" Stacie slowed her running and put her hands on her knees.

"Overwork yourself?" he asked coming up behind her and placing a hand on her back, just as she started to throw up. "Breathe in baby girl, breathe in… deep breaths. You must have over worked yourself…" But Stacie continued to throw up, which had Steve worried that she had caught the flu or something. She as burning up, and not just from running, she was abnormally hot. Once her vomiting had ceased, Steve picked her up and carried her back to her house and got her on the couch.

"Flu?"

"Maybe… God this awful feeling just came over me. And I'm so tired all of a sudden…" Stacie said, pulling down the blanket off her couch and onto her.

"Have any flu medicine?"

"Yeah, in the upstairs bathroom medicine cabinet." Stave jogged up the stair bringing back the Theraflu, measuring it out and handing it to her, he chuckled at the face she made.

"Poor thing… you're getting sick. And right here before all the holidays."

"It's like clock work, I always get sick about this time."

"Well, I'll make some chicken soup… get a fire going… and guess park it here for a while till your family gets in."

"Steve.. they don't get in for another two weeks… go home…"

"Eh eh… I'm not leaving you here, sick and pathetic. What sort of friend would I be?" Steve laughed as he passed her moving into her kitchen to gather the things to make chicken soup, he'd make the kind his mother used to make, he swore it could cure cancer.

"Stacie! Where's your crock pot?!"

"Cabinet above the fridge!" Steve opened the cabinet and drug out the cabinet knocking down some old papers and dust as he did so. He bent down and picked them and realized they were letters from Mark, several years old from when they were dating. He picked up the first one, it had been scribbled on a small piece of paper from a hotel room. He remembered Mark writing her letter when they were dating, their schedules were so busy he wrote when he could on anything he could find.

_Stacie,_

_These past few weeks have been grueling and the nights seem to creep by. Steve and the boys have been ragging on me about counting down the days until I can see you again. I know this has been hard on both of us, but I know in the end it will be okay. I know we're meant for each other. It's just a matter of time, and things will get better. You're worth it though darlin. Everything that we're going through is preparing us for what we need to survive. I love you. Just a few more days._

_All My Love,  
Mark_

Steve sighed and put the letters back on top of the fridge and continued on making the chicken soup, his conscious heavy for Mark and Stacie. Everything seemed like all odds were stacked against them, but something just didn't seem right. Mark and Stacie seemed so right for each other, how could something like this go so far south so quickly? There were moments where he doubted Michelle's pregnancy whenever he talked to Mark, no morning sickness, no weight gain. But each pregnancy was different, and Michelle had battled anorexia, so he didn't say anything to Mark. Mark would also repeatedly ask him if he knew were Stacie was, if he talked to her – Steve hated lying to the guy, but he was protective of Stacie, so he'd just say no. Steve finished putting the ingredients in the crock pot and moved back into the living room and joined Stacie who was watching t.v. She smiled over at him and snuggled deeper under the covers. Steve decided then he would stay on through Thanksgiving and leave shortly after, and maybe drag her with him to Texas to bring in Christmas.

_____

Maria slid in the booth in a dark corner of the hotel's restaurant; everyone else had gone out for the evening but she just wasn't feeling it. All she wanted was some coffee and some dessert before turning in for the night. She sat back in the booth and smiled as she took the piping hot cup of coffee in her hands and was just about to take a sip when she heard people sit in the booth behind her – it was John and Michelle; she rolled her eyes and was about to get up and move to another booth, but their conversation stopped her dead in her tracks.

"Does he know you're here?"

"No, I slipped a Benadryl in his drink and it knocked him on out. He's sleeping, but I don't want to be gone too long."

"So how much longer do we have to keep this up?"

"I figure just a few more months. I at least need to get married to the man before I miscarry. We'll stay married a little while, I'll push for power, in turn push for you to have some more power and then when Mark's about ready to retire I'll leave him.. Knowing him, he'll continue to wrestle and become one of those old wrestlers that should have stopped a long time ago." Maria froze… was Michelle getting an abortion?

"How are you keeping the pregnancy visage up?"

"Photoshop is a beautiful thing, John." Maria froze, Michelle was totally playing Mark. She had to tell somebody… but who?

Paul was backstage with Stephanie going over their holiday schedule, they were all going to Vermont to be with Stacie for Thanksgiving. Last Steph had talked to Stacie she was doing fine, a little under the weather but she was supposed to be going to the doctor tomorrow to get some heavy duty medicine so she could be better in time for Thanksgiving. Everyone seemed to be moving on fine from the whole Mark fiasco, well, everyone but Mark, but no one really cared. He, no pun intended, had dug his own grave.

"PAUL! PAUL! PAUL! PAUL!" Maria came bolting through the door startling both he and Stephanie.

"What? Is everything okay?"

"NO!"

"What is it?"

"Michelle's not really pregnant!" Paul and Stephanie's faces turned to shock, and they just stood there and looked at Maria.

"What?"

"Michelle's not pregnant…" Maria started again, fidgeting as she did so. "Don't tell them I told you. You see, I was at the hotel last night having dessert and coffee when they came in and sat behind me, I guess they didn't see me."

"Wait… who's they?"

"John and Michelle… and Michelle told John that she was going to miscarry the baby, photoshop is a beautiful thing, and eventually she would divorce Mark and leave him dry." Maria got it all out in a huddled mess.

"You're sure?"

"Positive!"

Stephanie and Paul exchanged glances and Paul thanked Maria for the information and told her not to breathe a word to anyone about what was said.

"I think it's time for another drug test…" Stephanie said.

"What?"

"I'll screen for pregnany's too… wouldn't want any of our diva's possibly hurting their unborn without knowing."

"I like the way you think Steph."

______

Stacie sat in her office staring at the doctor completely dumbfounded. She had come here for the flu. Not to be blindsided by this news. For a brief moment she's pretty sure the world stopped and she had to remind her self to breathe again.

"Ms. McMahon, are you okay?" Her doctor quipped.

"Yeah.. yeah… I'm fine… Just…"

"Shock is normal. Take some time to yourself and when you're ready to talk about options, call me at my office." Stacie nodded and got up, walking out to the waiting room where Steve was. She nodded for him to follow her outside and to her car, she didn't breathe a word till she got in the car, feeling the lump in her throat start to settle. Just when life starts turning around this shit happens….

"Stacie.. is everything okay?" Steve asked, grabbing her shoulders and turning her to look at him.

"No…" she got out, her voice high as she started to cry.

"Stacie… what is it? Are you going to be okay?"

"No…" She got out again.

"What… what is it?"

"…. I'm pregnant…" she got out in a whisper.


	13. We're Having A Baby, My Baby And Me

**Thanks for the reviews and your patience and understanding and basically all you guys AWESOMENESS on me trying to figure out what the what is going on with fanfic not posting my chapters. (Stupid internet.)**

**-wink- enjoy!!**

_Oh won't you walk through  
And bust in the door  
And take me away  
Oh no more mistakes  
Cause in your eyes I'd like to stay..._

"You're what?" Steve asked, just as dumbfounded as Stacie was.

"Pregnant…."

"How far along?"

"About seven weeks…" Steve knew it didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that Mark was the father, and this complicated things.

"What are you going to do?"

"I don't know, I mean I honestly and sincerely don't know." Stacie looked into his eyes for guidance but Steve had no idea either. So instead of offering some advice that didn't mean anything he helped her into the car, took her keys and began to drive them home.

"You could tell Mark?"

"No! God no… I'm just now working myself through getting over him. I can't just waltz him back into my life. Besides, it's not fair to him – with the situation it would put him in."

"Abortion?"

"I don't want too…"

"Adoption?"

"Maybe… God Steve, I just need time to think… and pray… and think. I need to talk to my mom…" Steve could hear the dread in her voice, and took her hand in his. He wasn't a praying a man, but for Stacie he'd make an exception. This definitely put Stacie between a rock and a hard place, and he had no idea how she was going to work this into her life.

____________________

"Mrs. Levesque?" Stephanie's secretary popped her head into Steph's office

"Yes?" Stephanie looked up from her computer, resume's had been pouring in for Stacie's job, but no one could do it like Stacie could.

"I have the drug test results back." Her secretary placed them on her desk and quickly left the office. Stephanie stared at the package for a moment wondering what she would do if Maria's accusations were true, how would she tell Mark and approach Michelle. Hoping for the best she opened the package and read the results – sure enough, no Superstars in the WWE tested positive for drugs or pregnancy. She re-read Michelle's results twice to be sure of it.

"Are those the results?" Shane asked, startling Stephanie – she looked up at him, he was leaning her doorway.

"Yeah…"

"And…?"

"No baby…"  
"Stacie's here." Shane just blurted out, looking down at the floor then back to Stephanie.

"What?!" Stephanie looked up at her brother, shock etched on her features. "Did she change her mind?!"

"I don't know, she's in dad's office. Has some sort of announcement." Stephanie got up and followed her brother down the hall to their dad's office. She had to be coming back, she just had too, there's nothing else it could be. Shane held the door open for Stephanie and the first person she saw was Stacie. She was leaning against bar dad kept in his office, her face contorted with worry.

"Hey guys…"

"Hey sis… is everything okay?" Shane asked.

"You guys might want to sit down…" Shane and Stephanie joined their parents and sat across from Stacie, watching as she took a deep breath in and closing her eyes.

"What I'm getting ready to tell you, you cannot over react. It cannot leave this room – don't even tell Paul, Stephanie…." Stacie took another deep breath and breathed it out slowly, "I'm pregnant."

"What?" Vince asked.

"God, do I really have to keep repeating myself? I'm pregnant, a bun in the oven, baby on board, in a few months my stomach is going to be the size of a basketball…"

"With a baby?" Shane asked.

"No… a puppy," Stacie retorted, the sarcasm thick.

"I'm assuming Steve is the Father?" their mother quipped.

"I could only wish…" Stacie muttered under her breath, and Stephanie's eyes went large.

"Mark?" Stephanie asked, and Stacie fell quiet and looked at the floor.

"Yeah… Mark's… look… I don't know what I'm going to do yet, or how I'm going to handle it; but let **me** handle it. No running to Mark and hoping for a reconciliation – it's over, he's getting married next month. He's made his bed, and now he has to sleep in it."

"But Michelle…" Shane started and Stephanie kicked him in the shin

"Michelle would surely be a horrid step-mother to your baby… I agree… we shouldn't tell Mark." Stephanie interrupted her brother, Shane biting his tongue.

"Right…" Stacie added, obviously suspicious "Look, I'm serious, not a word of this leaves this office. I can't have anyone finding out I'm pregnant!"

"It stays here…"Vince said, "Are you doing to keep it?"

"Yes… after loosing one child I don't think I could bear to loose another one." Stephanie had zoned out by now and was wondering if this was fate trying to get Mark and Stacie back together, no one but she and Shane knew Michelle was not pregnant; and that was definitely against WWE's code of conduct; but it wasn't enough to fire her, but it was a start. But right now all that mattered to Stephanie was making sure her sisters sanity was okay – she could only imagine what this was doing to her. Stacie had always been the calm one with hardly any drama in her life. She was, by far, the most laid back sibling and probably the most responsible – but she was also meticulous in how she wanted her life to be and knew that this was going to have her riddled with all sorts of doubts. She looked to her sister and saw every inch of worry and fear in her eyes and decided now it was her turn to carry her sister, Stacie had carried both she and Shane in hard times.

"Stacie…" Stephanie got up and embraced her sister in a strong hug, "You'll be a great mom… I know it."

__________________

Paul got off the phone with Steph just as some officials came into the backstage area, Steph had warned him they were sending the Ethics Officer to place Michelle on suspension effective immediately – they had assumed it was so she could keep her Women's Title longer, and not to corner Mark into marrying her. Paul leaned against the wall and watched as many of the other superstars raised their brow, everyone knew when the Ethics Officer came it wasn't good news, Shawn Michaels came up beside Paul and leaned against the wall, resting his fingers in his belt buckle.

"Who failed?"

"Not a clue," Paul lied, just then the Ethics Officer approached Michelle, the shocked look on Mark's face visible, as the Officer led her into an empty room and shut the door.

"Michelle failed the test?"

"It appears that way, doesn't it?" Paul had to hide the smirk by covering his mouth with his hands to appear in shock. Stephanie had also filled him in on Stacie's bun in the oven, but had ordered him to the strictest confidence, Stephanie had to beg Stacie to let her tell him. While Steph never told him who the father was, Paul could only assume it was Mark's; but no one was to breathe a word to Mark. Well, if it was fate, it was fate…

Michelle soon emerged, a face of shame and shock, she didn't even bother to go to Mark, but instead she bolted for the women's locker room, Mark following after her. _Poor guy,_ Paul thought._ His world is getting ready to have a heaping of bull shit added to it._

"Michelle!" Mark roared as she slammed the door to the locker room in his face, causing him to kick it to get in. Maria, Kelly and Jillian were in there and quickly left, scurrying past Michelle and then him to safety.

"What is it Mark?" Michelle asked in a rather pissed off tone.

"Don't get short with me, you want to tell me what's going on?"

"I can't…"

"Like hell you can't. What is it?"

"She's not pregnant…" Mark turned and saw John Cena standing in the door way, Michelle looked past Mark and to Cena, her eyes bug eyed in horror.

"You want to come again, son?" Mark asked, squaring up to John.

"She's not pregnant – she can't get pregnant. You see Mark, we had this plan to get her to marry you, ruin you… but I just can't do it. I can't sit back and watch a legend get destroyed like that. I haven't ate, I haven't slept, I haven't been able to function with all this guilt." Mark felt his blood boil and turned to Michelle, the look on her face was an answer enough for him. He moved past Cena and out in the hall way, but instead of taking a right back to the crew, he took a left and went out side and breathed in deep, letting the cold air pierce his lungs. The realization he didn't have a child on the way elated him because it wasn't with Michelle, but tore him up at the same time since all he really wanted was a family. Mark breathed in, his breath fogging the cool air, his mind immediately going to Stacie, and that's where his heart completely sunk. He knew he had blown it with her and there was no way her family was going to let him anywhere near her.

"I need a break…" he muttered under his breath and stalked off back inside the arena, he'd talk to Vince tomorrow.

____________

Stacie stared down at her phone feeling her stomach queezy and her heart in her throat, the last time she told Mark she was a little bit more than happy; now she just had this sick feeling in her stomach. Her family had been in for Thanksgiving for a week now, and she had used the holiday's as an excuse to not call him. Now, the day after Thanksgiving, Stephanie had locked her in her room and refused to let her out until she told Mark. She took a deep breath and scrolled through her phone book finally finding him listed under "You're Better Off" and hit send. It rang a few times and she thought maybe he had changed his number until he picked up..

"Hello?" He sounded so sad…  
"Mark?"

"Stacie…?"

"Yeah… hey… um, how are you?"

"I've been better."

"What… what's wrong?"

"Your family hasn't told you?"

"No, they don't speak much about you too me…"

"Oh. Well… Michelle lied about being pregnant." Stacie felt her heart drop to her stomach, this was horrible timing… "I thought you were calling to give me your condolences.."

"No.. actually…" Stacie sighed… "This is going to be like de ja vue all over again…."

"What? Trust me, nothing surprises me anymore."

"I'm… um… I'm pregnant, and I'm 100% sure that I am and that it's yours… Now before you go on a tirade, I'm not asking for anything – no money, no marriage, you can be as involved as you want. But I know you needed to know…" Stacie waited for a few moments to hear Mark's reaction, but heard nothing… "Mark? Mark? You there?"

"Yeah… yeah… I'm here." He sounded like he had been punched in the gut, not good.

"Can you say anything to let me know how you're feeling?"

"A little confused…."

"We could start a club."

"A little frustrated… and a little pissed." Stacie wasn't expecting that reaction.

"What? Why are you pissed?"

"I just never envisioned starting a family like this."

"Well Mark… we're not exactly _starting_ a family. We're not a family to begin with. I was just letting you know…"

"What the hell does that mean? We're not a family to begin with?"

"Well what are we Mark?" Mark said nothing, "Exactly… we're nothing. We're two adults who found out we're having a child together. And like I said, you can be as involved as you want. I'll be in touch." Stacie flipped her phone closed and tossed to the side.

"Men…" she muttered under her breath.

_____________________________________

Mark stared blankly at his phone, he didn't mean to upset her, it was just such a shock. He woke up today feeling pretty sure that he would never again have a chance with Stacie and by the afternoon he found out they were going to be having a kid together? _A baby… My baby's having a baby…_Mark recollected from the previous pregnancy they had together.

"What am I doing here? My baby's having a baby…" Mark jogged from the living room up the stairs and into his office, switching his computer on. "What am I doing? I can't just google her name and find an address…. Unless…" Mark logged into the company e-mail under his managers account and went to the staff directory.

"Bingo…" Mark then moved to book a flight to Barre, Vermont and was due there tomorrow at noon. Sure, Stacie would be surprised but what the hell? They had nothing to loose, and he just wanted to be there for her. Mark then got to thinking about the baby and found himself smiling, and then the fact that it was Christmas, and soon Stacie's belly would be growing, he shot up and darted out of the house making his way to his truck feeling a sense of purpose and life coursing through his veins. He got in his truck and started to drive to town, thinking about how much his life had changed in the past few days, but all of these were not purely coincidence, this had to have some meaning to it. Mark pulled into the shopping center, he had a Christmas List in his mind and needed to hop on it.

(**Ugh! I feel like I slaughtered that chapter...)**


	14. Regret

_**Your words they mean just a whisper  
Your face is so unclear  
I try to pay attention… your words just disappear.  
'Cause it's always raining in my head.  
Forget all the things I should have said.**_

Stacie and Steve had finally finished cleaning the house after her family had left after the Thanksgiving festivities and she plopped down on the couch exhausted.

"So when are you decorating for Christmas?" Steve quipped.

"Next Christmas" Stacie chuckled.

"Oh come one Stace, you have to decorate for Christmas! What kind of human being are you?"

"A practical one, if it's going to be just me here Steve, what's the point?" Stacie's eyes followed him as he plopped down beside her. She was thankful he had been there for her these past several weeks, he had gotten her through a lot and wasn't looking forward to him leaving in a few days. He had tried to take her back to Texas, but she wouldn't hear of it. She wanted some peace and quiet before all the hustling with the baby came around. She was sure Mark would be coming out here as much as possible to see that the baby was developing, her parents, her sisters, her brothers, Steve. In 3 weeks she'd be sailing into her second trimester, and life as she knows it now would cease. It worried her some about being a single mother, but she knew she could do it; and Mark would be a great daddy. Hell, Mark was a lot of things, but a dead beat father wouldn't be one of them. Stacie stirred from her thoughts by her doorbell, she gave it a puzzled look and turned to Steve.

"Are you expecting anyone?"

"No lil mama.." Stacie rolled her eyes, he'd been calling her that since a few days after she told him she was pregnant. Stacie threw the door open and was startled to see Mark there.

"Mark?"

"Hey… um… Merry Christmas?" Mark held up some Vogue Roses to her, almost as if it was a peace offering – she actually was shocked that he remembered her favorite flower. She took them and motioned for him to come inside, and noted the shocked look on Steve's face but mouthed "Shut it" before Steve could say anything.

"What brings you here, Mark?" Steve stood up and shook Mark's hand, Mark's face a little apprehensive as to why Steve was here.

"The baby."

"Not Stacie?" Stacie rolled her eyes as she found a vase to put the flowers in, Mark wasn't exactly on Steve's best side right now.

"Well, yeah… her too."

"Uh huh… well why don't you have a seat?" Stacie sighed and returned to the living room, it was going to be a long and interesting evening.

"Actually, I need to bring in some things… if you don't mind." Mark looked over to Stacie, she stuttered because she wasn't used to him asking for permission, and surely he wasn't planning on staying here?

"Um, ah… no?" Mark turned on his heel and Steve followed close after him, Stacie wasn't sure if it was to help or investigate or both; either way she was thankful that Steve was leaving tomorrow and hoped Mark didn't intend on staying too long. She flopped down on the couch and rubbed her temples with her hands.

"I uh… brought you a few things…" Stacie looked up at Mark, he was carrying a car seat, baby toys, baby clothes, maternity clothes, a diaper bag and thing of diapers. Stacie couldn't get a word out she was so shocked and humored. She never envisioned Mark like this and it was actually kind of cute, all be it funny. She covered her mouth with her hand when she felt a grin tugging at her lips.

"Mark, the baby won't be here for months… we've got time…"

"I know… I went in just to get a few things and left with half the store…"

"No kidding… at this rate, I won't get a shower."

"What does bathing have to do with this?"

"A baby shower…"

"Oh.. yeah… do you not like them?"

"No! I love them… it's just.. sudden and unexpected."

"Yeah, like you dropping in," Steve chided coming through the doorway carrying Mark's bags, it looked like he intended on staying for a while.

"Um, Mark? How long are you staying in Vermont?"

"I thought, maybe until the baby is born…" At first Stacie wanted to protest, but then she saw something in his eyes she hadn't seen in a long time and it was happiness and excitement. Mark was elated about this baby, and she couldn't tell him no; besides she had told him he could be as involved as he wanted.

"That sounds great." She watched as his body came down with relief, poor guy, he didn't always think things through.

"I should have called… but… well…"

"It's fine, lets bring your things in… set those down…"she motioned to the all things baby items he was carrying "and get you settled. You'll have to sleep in the living room, Steve has the guest room."

"I can stay at a hotel until I find an aparment."

"Lord, Mark. This house is huge just stay in the guest quarters, no need on you pissing your money away."

"Are you sure?"

"What are you going to do, get me pregnant?" Stacie stood up and stretched ignoring Steve's watchful eye and continued, "besides with doctor's appointments and me being here by myself and you wanting to be involved, why not?"

"Only if you don't mind, the minute it gets weird, I'm out."

"As if this isn't weird enough?" Stacie almost regretted saying that when she saw pain flash in Mark's eyes, but she decided she was done with formalities and being nice. Now it was really beginning to sink in that Mark was going to be in her life, the rest of her life whether she liked it or not.

Mark looked up at the ceiling as he lay in the guest bedroom of Stacie's. She had it nicely decorated, hell her whole house was nicely decorated. It was like something you'd see out of those fancy home magazines. She had antiques, comfy furniture, stylish prints. It was nothing like his ranch, his ranch was big and spacious. Stacie's house was big but full of pictures, knick knacks, and had enough floral decorations to fill a church for a Sunday wedding. But if anything it felt like home, not a house; he smiled to himself as he heard her in her room singing in the shower and closed his eyes, remembering this was how he woke up most days when they were together.

He had only been here a few days and found himself cautiously tip toeing around Stacie, to make sure he didn't overstep any of the boundaries she had thrown up – and he reasoned it was rightfully so. Other women that he had thought he had gotten pregnant or in Michelle's case, lied about it all together, he was jumping the gun and ready to marry them. Stacie wasn't expecting that of him, and it kind of threw him for a loop. This wasn't how he envisioned having a family, but Steve had made it clear as crystal what to expect from Stacie the day Steve left a few days ago.

"Don't expect anything." Steve said. The men were sharing a few beers on the front porch while Stacie had gone to get groceries. Both wanted to go with her, but she firmly had said no, anytime anyone else went to the grocery store with her she spent more than she wanted too. She had a list and she was sticking to it. So Mark moved to the front porch to wait on her, and Steve soon followed and sat with him bringing out a six pack.

"What do you expect her to do Mark?" Steve asked him, "Just drop her life that she's built, without you, and start over. She tried to have a life with you and you some how… it still bewilders me how… but you fucked that one over."

"I don't like who I am without her."

"Well I like her just fine, with or without you. Seems like you're having an identity crisis."

"What?"

"Mark, are you dumber than an ox? The girl is secure in who she is. She knows who she is, and if anyone happens to be in her life it's by her own accord. Not because someone is twisting her arm or manipulating the situation. I know how badly you want a family and all that Hallmark Channel shit; but the way you've gone around it is wrong. You want marriage, but you hate commitment. Isn't that why you cheated on Stacie so many years ago?"

Mark grew quiet, he didn't like where this was heading but knew he had to hear it.  
"Look, so you fucked it up. Maybe that's why she's having the kid, to make you a better man for it. But the only relationship you need to fix is the one with yourself. How the hell can you love someone, especially someone like her, and not feel secure in yourself?"

"Since when did you become a philosopher?"

"Two failed marriages ago…"

Mark sighed and took a long sip of the beer and knew this one would be his last one. Steve brought up a few good points

"Mark?" Mark stirred from remembering his and Steve's conversation and looked at Stacie standing in the door way. He sucked in a breath, her hair was damp and drying to fit her naturally wavy hair, she had on an oversized sweat shirt and some ill fitted sweat pants, but she was absolutely adorable to him. He fought the urge to get up and kiss her on the forehead like he had so many years ago.

"Y.. yeah?" He felt his voice catch in his throat.

"Want some ice cream?"

"Sure." Mark moved off the bed and grabbed his sweat shirt throwing it over his bare chest and followed her down the hall way down the stairs through the living room and into the kitchen. Mark watched her silently and could see the apprehensiveness on her features. While she had her moments of being happy with the pregnancy he had caught her twice crying, he never pried as to why and he just let her be; but he was sure that she was a bundle of emotions and confusion – or maybe it was just her hormones changing. But he knew her enough to know that she was scared, her life had always been well thought out and planned – everything had its place and was in its place; this was not in her plans.

He had also been thinking a lot lately about what Steve had said. He couldn't force anything with Stacie, and in the back of his mind he knew that any chance they had dimmed a while ago; but regardless he knew he had to work on himself, if at least for the babies sake. He had already ruled out drinking and was winging himself off of snuff; now he was going to try to mend the bridge with Stacie, granted the bridge was still there, but it was broken and missing pieces and he knew it was his responsibility to fix it.

"Hey Stace… are you up to talkin' tonight?" Mark watched her still her movements from scooping the ice cream out and her eyes caught his.

"Sure… what's on your mind?" He knew she knew that this was going to be a heart to heart, she had this intuition about him that no one since his mother had matched.

"I just feel like I need to apologize… for a lot of things I've done. I feel like maybe we wouldn't be where we were if I hadn't…" Mark swallowed, admitting he was wrong was difficult for him, "cheated on you." Mark could feel his heart beat thudding in his temples, that was the first step to mending the bridge and maybe the hardest steps. He watched as she slid his bowl of ice cream towards him and moved around the bar to sit beside him, bringing her ice cream with him. He had a feeling it was going to be a long evening.

Stacie knew he was going to say something that meant a lot to him, but she wasn't expecting an apology. While she had forgiven him years ago she knew he needed to hear it now. She figured this would happen, the reality would sink in that he would have a child and he needed to straighten himself up, the first clue that he was straightening up was the case of beer in the fridge that had gone un-touched the past couple days. Regardless of what people said or thought, Mark was a easy guy to read if you just knew the language that he was.

"I forgive you Mark. I did a long, long time ago." She sat down beside him and look him in the eye smiling softly at him.

"I figured as much… It's just, you know…"

"Regrets are a hard thing to deal with... but don't dwell on it too much. You'll be worth nothing to anyone if your mind stay constantly in the past." This was advice Stacie kept on telling herself to keep moving forward with Mark. They were better off this way than together, in all honesty any chance they had were gone and they didn't have the time to dilly dally, they had a baby on the way and they needed to get their shit together so that they could be the best parents they could be to this baby.

"Do you think it's a boy or a girl?" Mark asked, stirring Stacie from her thoughts.

"I don't know," Stacie shrugged, "Steph knew with both of hers, but I think it's too early for me to tell anyway…"

"Can you feel anything?"

"Well, my boobs are too sore to touch, I'm nauseous almost all day and after I eat I get this rock hard stomach. But as far as baby movement, no. It's too early." Stacie laughed as Mark looked at her belly like she was carrying some sort of alien. She knew what he wanted, so she gently grabbed his hand and placed it on her belly. "They're in there Mark…" Stacie saw Mark smile genuinely for the first time and she could almost swear she saw a tear in his eye.


End file.
